For the past few days, Netflix movie Ashab Wala A’az (Friends or Dearer) has been causing a stir on social media.
Some describe the film as obscene and against Arab/Egyptian moral values. Others said it’s daring and exposes real Arab societies.
However, in my opinion, the words ‘mountain’ and ‘molehill’ come to mind.
The movie is the Arabic version of the 2016 Italian film Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) which has been remade 18 times worldwide.
The Italian original was shown at the 38th Cairo International Film Festival.
Ashab Wala A’az , directed by Wissam Smayra, stars Mona Zaki (Egypt), Eyad Nassar (Jordan), actor-director Nadine Labaki (Lebanon) and Fouad Yammine (Lebanon).
The story tells of one night when a group of seven friends gather for dinner and they decide to play a game, sharing incoming calls and messages on their mobiles.
Although they seem to be best friends, they know little about each other.
Rabie (Fouad Yammine) is a homosexual who has concealed his affairs from his friends. But because his friend Sherif (Iyad Nassar) is cheating on his wife and is afraid that she knows, he exchanges his mobile phone with Rabie.
When Rabie gets a call from his partner, the group of friends mistakenly think Sherif is gay because they exchanged their mobile phones.
When Rabie sees that his friends do not accept Sherif as gay, he says, “It’s the same person that you befriend, nothing has changed.
He wants to ask people not to judge a person according to his sexual orientation.
Later on, when the friends discover the truth, Sherif defends his gay friend.
For most of Arab society, homosexuality is a taboo. They deny it even if they know it exists.
However, gays people have been portrayed in Egyptian cinema — Malatily Bathhouse(1973) and Asrar ‘Aelia (Family Secrets, 2013).
In the latter film, the protagonist tries to work out why he is gay and how he struggles with psychiatry.
Meanwhile, Maryam (Mona Zaki) is suffering from emotional exhaustion as her marriage is going through a rough patch and they share no physical contact.
In one scene, she appears to be removing her underwear.
There’s no nudity, but the film drew criticism on social media and attacked the actress.
The Arabic screenplay is faithful to the original Italian, which is why the film is considered shocking as it contains some vulgar words, but still, people use these words every day in real life without thinking twice.
In conclusion, the characters that could be of any nationality. Their stories are pretty universal. Why all the social media fuss?
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