UAE to produce a documentary series to cover inferiority complex in its history
The ruling regime in the UAE has used the help of foreign crew specialized in the production of documentaries to promote the country’s history in an attempt to compensate for its shortage complex.
The Emirati system aims to promote the “cultural heritage” of the country through a huge documentary series entitled “Emirates History” using techniques such as computer photography (CGI) and 360-degree photography.
The series claims that it dates back to about 125,000 years of the history of the Emirates land, knowing that the Emirates is a federal country established only 48 years ago.
The UAE system paid large sums of money in order to broadcast three episodes of the international version on “National Geographic” channel after a show on the local UAE channels.
The documentary series will be supervised by director Anthony Givin who agreed to the mission in exchange for large sums of money.
In the first episode, the documentary series examines the existence of human life in the Jabal Al-Faya (North-East) area 125,000 years ago, which is believed to be another way to migrate outside Africa.
It also deals with the first settlements 8,000 years ago on the island of Marwah, off the coast of the capital Abu Dhabi.
The documentary also addresses the presence of the British in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the region, which is rare to talk about.
The documentary series deals with various issues from the discovery of ancient archaeological sites, but it avoids touching on sensitive political topics such as the lack of political participation of citizens of the state and widespread arrests on the background of opinion.
The Emirati regime is trying to portray the country as a regional power and intervene militarily to do so in Yemen, Libya, the Horn of Africa and several other countries.
British academic Christopher Davidson says he widely views the UAE as “having no real history” compared to other countries that have a huge heritage in the region, such as Egypt, Iraq or Syria.
As for the researcher at the Institute of European Council on Foreign Relations, Chinazia Bianco, she says that on the international scene, the historical presence is an important element “in changing the self-image and the perception of the Emiratis to themselves.”
According to Bianco, this is “very important for the leaders of the Emirates because they want to complete this process from moving from a limited to a moderate force.”
Over the years, the UAE has been involved in looting and stealing antiquities from Arab countries, especially Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Syria, with a view to promoting them in its museums and overcoming several deficiencies in its history.
In the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, the UAE displays stolen and smuggled antiques, part of which was sold to Abu Dhabi through gangs smuggling antiquities related to some terrorist groups in an expression of the status of their rulers, their contempt and their involvement in illegal practices.
The new version of the Louvre-Abu Dhabi, which gave France the green light, is seen as a distorting factor for the great Louvre edifice in Paris, in a step without value aimed at polishing the image of the UAE and its authoritarian and repressive regime.
