Perfect Strangers เพื่อนแปลกหน้า (2022) [บรรยายไทย]

Inspired by the 2016 Italian film by Paolo Genovese of the same title, Lebanese director Wissam Smayra’s movie revolves around the story of seven close friends who get together for dinner and decide to play a game that involves them placing their phones on the table, and agreeing in to openly share all calls, texts, and voice message as they come.

The film resembles a theatrical play, where light is shed on each character’s darkest and most vulnerable moments. Every performance is masterfully captivating and emotionally explosive. The power of the film is that although captivating, it elucidates a fear everyone has, being noticeably exposed. The viewers, then, beg an important question in their internal dialogue, questioning how they would feel had they been sitting on this truth unlocking table. It is only then that the audience is forced to evaluate the wedded relationship they have with their phones. After the dramatic outburst of each character, the final scene of the film leaves the audience with a puzzling twist – one that will leave them concluding their own desired endings.

One of the most important elements of the film is its chamber drama element, where a small number of characters interact with each other in a limited environment, thus evoking intimacy and closeness. The film is well-balanced, between a thrillingly realistic dialogue that is met with comic relief to ease the overflowing tension. The melancholic music parallelly cues the weight of the events that are to unfold throughout the film.

It is important to note that the film strides towards inclusivity and equal representation for the marginalized communities in the Middle East and North African region. Queer representations in the Arab filmmaking scene often exist in coded forms; however, Ashab Wala A’azz visibly portrays the diversity that exists in its raw portrayal of the struggles present in the Arab world. Rabih, like many Queers in the Arab region, puts on a false heteronormative identity in front of his friends and family out of fear of being outed. Much like the secrets that unfolded throughout the night, Rabih’s ‘taboo’ relationship was brought to the surface. The plot twist of his character coincides with the overarching theme of the film, as he was imprisoned in an identity that was foreign to him but familiar to all his supposedly close friends, which goes to show the weight of keeping secrets.

The universal connection of the story’s message has led it to have several foreign remakes of the Italian original, including Spanish, Greek, French, Korean, Mexican, Turkish, Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and many more. It is worth noting, however, that Ashab Wala A’azz oddly omits the change of audio and subtitling into any English language. The film will likely not have a wide international reach to the many different speaking languages given it is limited to Arabic (with no other subtitle options other than Greek). This feels like an unusual oversight given this is the first Arabic original film to be released on Netflix.

However, all the elements entwined together make Ashab Wala A’azz a successful debut that will certainly make us wait for more Arabic originals by the global streaming giant.