Netflix has finally dropped the the official trailer of the long-awaited Arabic adaptation of the Italian hit Perfect Strangers, and it is shaping up to be the best version of the film yet.
The film drops in just one week’s time, on January 20.
The film unites an all-star Pan-Arab cast, including Oscar-nominee Nadine Labaki, Egyptian star Mona Zaki, Eyad Nassar, Georges Khabbaz, Adel Karam, Fouad Yammine and Diamand Abou Abboud.
Here’s the trailer:
The film is directed by Wissam Smayra, who previously produced the Nadine Labaki-directed film Capernaum, which is the highest-grossing Middle Eastern film of all time. With Perfect Strangers, Smayra makes his debut as a film director.
“Nadine and I are very, very old friends. We started our careers together. We’re very close, like family. She was the first person I thought of. I knew Nadine would be amazing in the main role. It was a natural fit,” Smayra told me last year before production.
The film, which has already been adapted into many other languages across the world, has a simple but intriguing premise, diving into the secret life that each of us has on our mobile phones. In the film, a group of friends at a dinner party decide to put their phones in the middle of the table, and any incoming messages or calls will be made public—revealing truths that none of them are ready to share.
For the Arabic-language version, the film will pull from Arabic culture first and foremost, and the lives—both public and secret—that people live in the region.
“I think it’s great because it really plays with the taboos of our culture, revealing what’s hidden inside each of the people you know,” Smayra told me.
The film is produced by the Dubai-based Front Row Filmed Entertainment along with Egypt’s Film Clinic, Lebanon’s Empire Entertainment and Yalla Yalla, a joint-venture between Front Row and Rocket Science.
Here’s the official description from Netflix:
Dinner with friends is supposed to be an intimate, social moment. One where we should disconnect from our phones, and enjoy each other’s company. But what if we did the opposite?
What if our dinner entertainment was, in fact, to share everything, including our phones and what is on them, indiscriminately? Are we prepared to reveal all to those whom we say are our closest friends and partners?
“Perfect Strangers”, the first Arabic Netflix film based on the smash-hit Italian feature, tells the story of seven close friends who get together for dinner and decide to play a game that involves them placing their cell phones on the dinner table, and agreeing to openly share every call, text and voice message as it comes. What starts out as fun, quickly unfolds into an uncharted path of untold secrets that reveals more than what they wish to share.
“Perfect Strangers” is about a group of friends who get together at a dinner party and agree to play a game that involves them placing their cell phones in the middle of the dinner table, and agreeing to openly share every call, text and voice message as it comes. Little did they know that this seemingly simple game would reveal their secrets and bring out the dark side for each character.
Directed by Wissam Smayra, Perfect Strangers marks Wissam’s debut as a film director. The film is produced by Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Empire Entertainment, Film Clinic, Yalla Yalla, executive producer Mayada AlHiraki, composer Khaled Mouzanar and written by Wissam Smayra and Gabriel Yammine.
The film will be available in 190 countries on Netflix, subbed in 31 languages, and dubbed to 3 languages.