‘The Sleeping Dictionary’: A Lesson In How Not To Tell Indigenous Stories

‘The Sleeping Dictionary’: A Lesson In How Not To Tell Indigenous Stories

source: IMDB TIL Jessica Alba played a native Iban woman in an ‘indigenous romance’ film, and that’s not even the most problematic part of the plot. Ah, The Sleeping Dictionary (2003)—a film that ostensibly seeks to explore the complexities of love and cultural exchange in 1930s colonial Malaysia but instead entangles itself in a web of racial insensitivity, misguided casting, and narrative superficiality. Let’s dissect this cinematic misadventu…