How Gladiator II reminds me of Palestine

(*no spoilers*) This is not a review of the film, but a reflection on how I see the world and how the world chooses not to see us.

One thing I will never understand about the American people is how they can cheer and root for the underdogs, the marginalized, the poor, the protestors, the wronged, the ones who resist, and so on, in films and books and sports — yet some of those same people fail to be consistent in reality.

In both Gladiator films, the main characters are men who are not afraid to stand up to and resist the dictators of the Roman Empire. The first film came out 24 years ago, on May 5, 2000, the day I turned one. I wasn’t there so I can’t explain how people responded to it, but history tells us that Bill Clinton was president at the time, and by the end of that year, George W. Bush won the election against then-Vice President Al Gore. Bush then went on to wage war on Iraq and Afghanistan and made this country unsafe for Muslims.

Fast forward to today, Donald Trump is taking over (again) soon, and the Biden administration is ending its reign with a legacy of fueling and supporting Israel’s active ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. Why is any of this relevant to Gladiator? It might not be, but it’s hard for me to not see parallels in films/literature and reality.

I won’t share any spoilers or specific details, but I will share how I feel in hopes to express how disappointed I am in the decision the film’s director and production team made in taking out Palestinian-Egyptian actress May Calamawy from the movie.

I spotted her twice, in the background near Denzel Washington when his character was the focus of the frame. In both films, there was only one main female lead with more than one line and that was Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen. Giving Calamawy a few lines in this film could have surely not have been that hard, yet the director decided to cut away whatever role she had.

Whether or not the choice was simply an artistic one to better suit the plot doesn’t even matter at this point. It was a deliberate choice that has not been explained or addressed by the team after the movie’s release. Instead, we are shown that she was still on the screen, yet silenced and irrelevant. And I’m not one who craves representation or who begs for it in Hollywood, but this decision truly wounded me as someone in the audience who shares a background with Calamawy.

I want to enjoy and love a story, and to be inspired by it, but it’s hard to enjoy anything coming out of a Hollywood that is so infested by those bowing down to Zionism — allowing its anti-Palestinian sentiments to influence artists and writers’ decisions.

Gladiator II opens up with the main character in Numidia, the last free city in African Nova, ready to resist against the Roman empire. Violently resisting an empire that was ever expanding through force and blood. I already liked it more than the first film (which I watched for the first time just a few days ago) because of the themes of resistance, dissent to power, and the emphasis on the people’s power and freedom.

But how can a story have characters questioning the brutality of Rome, questioning the violence, questioning the authority, questioning the point of further conquest and wars while its people are starving, but at the same time decide not to question their own decision to silence a voice and erase the presence of a Palestinian woman after promising her a role in the film? Especially when Palestine has been in deep pain and attack for the last year (plus at least 76 years)? Especially when hundreds of Palestinian journalists have been killed from sharing their stories?

What is the point of storytelling and producing films if they are not supposed to inspire, or to push for change, or to provide comfort or hope?

As someone who grew up in a country afraid to even recognize the word Palestine, the last year has made almost every single industry scream the word at the top of its lungs in so many decisions. From not allowing a Palestinian to speak on stage at the Democratic National Convention, to being fired from Meta for raising concerns about its shadowbanning Gaza content, to being fired from newsrooms for humanizing a Palestinian child, to jailing men for feeding hungry children in Palestine, to this and that and more.

I wish we can just be entertained. But to be entertained without thinking of Palestine is a luxury. These rooms have long dehumanized Palestinians, but the ugliness is getting extracted; it’s more apparent and exposed. It’s being recorded and hard to ignore.

I hope Palestine continues to haunt, and makes every conversation, film, policy, company, brand deal, book, and everything else all about her. I see Palestine in everything, and maybe if others did too then calls to resist the empires of this country and of Israel will be welcomed just as much as the calls for the fall of Rome.