When Back to the Future was made, Libya was ruled by Gaddafi, who was the archetype of a crazy middle eastern dictator. So the movie’s portrayal wasn’t exactly

When Back to the Future was made, Libya was ruled by Gaddafi, who was the archetype of a crazy middle eastern dictator. So the movie’s portrayal wasn’t exactly a stretch. Putting that aside, one of the luxuries of having your own movie industry is not having to care how other people depict you in their movies. I’ve been watching low budget Indian action/horror movies in Netflix lately, and the depictions of foreign countries are similarly one-dimensional. Because why should Indians care? They’re just trying to tell a story and they need props to fit into archetypes in the narrative.