Review: I’m Not Your F***ing Stereotype

Review of the short film I’m Not Your F***ing Stereotype
A thesis short film by Heesam Chemamah

“There was never a space to dare question one’s own identity,”
having to clash with a society that “only knows its own culture”
this probably best describes the setting of this short film.

Truly, since when is Islam a religion of peace?
When its image is filled with violence?
Even though, in reality, the word “peace” is present even in the everyday greeting.

Of course, the negative image,
the reality of the world, international politics,
and other cultural violence are matters that
have their own conditions that can be explained academically.
But life is not an academic stage — we simply have to live within
the society that appears right in front of us.

It’s not easy at all for a child who has to carry these “negative images”
and live in a society of differing identities, without being prepared for it.
“There was never a space to dare question one’s own identity,”
and having to clash with a society that “only knows its own culture”
This short film weaves together the discomfort of a Muslim child
who is made to feel alienated from the society they live in, in a compelling way.

And it reflects the contradictions of adults,
who express their frustration through how they manage
their child’s school years, in a new possible space,
in order to escape the old society, to escape from one’s own identity.

What is the problem truly hidden within Thai society?
This film offers perspectives on it in many dimensions.

And this story will point you toward one of the traces of adolescence —
why those young people are made to suffer more than what it means to simply be Muslim.

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