Fear is a Virus: Xenophobia in Mostafa Keshvari’s Corona (2020)
In an interview for the Rhode Island International Film Festival in August 2020, Mostafa Keshvari, the director of Corona, stated: “The virus doesn’t discriminate … we need to learn from the virus and treat each other the same.” The idea of making a film to call for unity and solidarity came to Keshvari in January 2020 when he was reading about attacks on people of Asian heritage. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many Asian Americans have been subjected to coronavirus-related xenophobia in the United States. The country has witnessed “a sharp uptick in reports of public racial abuse of ‘Asian-looking’ individuals” since the outbreak allegedly started in Wuhan, China. Keshvari’s film, Corona—Fear is a Virus (2020), is a timely fictional representation of such stigmatisation. The film focuses on xenophobia pertaining to East Asians and Asian Americans, specifically on anti-Chinese sentiments. It focuses less on the actual health emergency, […]