After critics expressed outrage over Taylor Swift's new music video "Wildest Dreams" for "channeling white colonialism," the video's director has come to his embattled work's defense.

The mini-film was ripped apart by a number of critics for its notable lack of black Africans and its portrayal of a "glamorous version of the white colonial fantasy of Africa." That Swift is donating the proceeds of the film (which has been viewed over 15 million times) to the African Parks Foundation of America didn't temper critics' outrage.

But director Joseph Kahn explained Wednesday that rather than having some sort of white supremacist political agenda, the film was simply supposed to be a "tragic love story" that was filmed on a "classic Hollywood" Africa-themed movie set.

The lack of black Africans, Kahn explained in a statement, was an attempt to be true to the period film theme, saying it would've been "historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history."

"There is no political agenda in the video," said Kahn. "Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography."

Kahn, an Asian American, also underscored that he and other "key creatives" who worked on the film are "people of color."

Here's Kahn's full statement:

Wildest Dreams is a song about a relationship that was doomed, and the music video concept was that they were having a love affair on location away from their normal lives. This is not a video about colonialism but a love story on the set of a period film crew in Africa, 1950.

There are black Africans in the video in a number of shots, but I rarely cut to crew faces outside of the director as the vast majority of screen time is Taylor and Scott. The video is based on classic Hollywood romances like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, as well as classic movies like The African Queen, Out of Africa and The English Patient, to name a few.

The reality is not only were there people of color in the video, but the key creatives who worked on this video are people of color. I am Asian American, the producer Jil Hardin is an African American woman, and the editor Chancler Haynes is an African American man. We cast and edited this video. We collectively decided it would have been historically inaccurate to load the crew with more black actors as the video would have been accused of rewriting history. This video is set in the past by a crew set in the present and we are all proud of our work.

There is no political agenda in the video. Our only goal was to tell a tragic love story in classic Hollywood iconography. Furthermore, this video has been singled out, yet there have been many music videos depicting Africa. These videos have traditionally not been lessons in African history. Let’s not forget, Taylor has chosen to donate all of her proceeds from this video to the African Parks Foundation to preserve the endangered animals of the continent and support the economies of local African people.