On January 20, Netflix launched Good Strangers, its first authentic characteristic movie in Arabic. A remake of the Italian movie of the identical identify, Wissam Smayra’s masterpiece has drawn loads of consideration within the Arab world and past. Inside every week of its launch, it topped Netflix’s chart of most-watched movies in numerous Arab international locations and was quantity 5 on its international chart of non-English-language content material.
Within the Center East, Good Strangers has challenged stereotypes by sparking fierce debates concerning the “morality” of cinematic portrayal of homosexuality and extramarital relations. Each matters, which are sometimes ignored or demonised within the area, are efficiently navigated within the taboo-breaking movie.
Within the West, for many people followers of Arab cinema, the characteristic comes as a breath of contemporary air. It defies the same old stereotypical narratives of terror, warfare and violence that dominate Western illustration of the area and affords a posh picture of Arab society.
The movie follows the story of a gaggle of associates who come collectively for dinner and determine to share with one another all messages and cellphone calls they obtain all through the night. This recreation takes them by a sequence of stunning revelations, exposing their insecurities and intimate secrets and techniques and pushing their friendships and relationships to the brink.
Similar to the Italian authentic, the movie takes place in a single setting, however that doesn’t diminish from its dynamism. It’s because the story is pushed by surprising twists and turns. The characteristic blasts by a spread of feelings – comedy, drama and suspense take the viewer on a rollercoaster trip.
We fortunately see Arab characters tackling regular interpersonal relations and dwelling their each day life with out battle dominating them. Even Iraq is talked about not within the context of warfare and sectarianism, however as a vacation spot for good larger training. For Arabic-speaking viewers, it’s also nice to see parts of previous pan-Arabism emerge, as characters converse in numerous Arabic dialects.
Briefly, Good Strangers is a stereotype-defying movie that got here out on a Western streaming platform on the proper time – when the headlines popping out of the Center East in worldwide media solely feed additional into persistent prejudice in direction of the area.
In reality, one of many principal culprits behind these widespread misconceptions about Center Easterners is Hollywood, which for many years has fixated on movies that reproduce unfavourable stereotypes about them.
Because the late Arab American author Jack Shaheen identified, “Arabs are essentially the most maligned group within the historical past of Hollywood”. In his guide Reel Dangerous Arabs, he famous that of movies he analysed between 1986 and 2000, solely 12 Arab characters had optimistic roles in contrast with the colossal 935 who had unfavourable ones.
Illustration of Muslims in Hollywood has additionally been fairly problematic. Final 12 months’s Pillars Fund examine discovered only one.6 % of 8,965 characters in movies launched in western Anglophone international locations had been Muslim and 39 % had been perpetrators of violence. Oscar-winning Zero Darkish Thirty and The Damage Locker are two typical examples of such films.
A newer instance of buying and selling in low-cost stereotypes concerning the area is the offensively titled documentary Jihad Rehab, which was screened on the prestigious Sundance Movie Pageant simply days after the discharge of Good Strangers.
The movie tells the story of three Yemenis previously imprisoned with out trial in Guantanamo Bay who need to attend a “re-education” centre in Saudi Arabia and take artwork and “up to date etiquette” courses. The accusations of Islamophobia and jingoism towards the movie, in addition to the portrayal of the protagonists as stereotypical terrorism-prone archetypes, precipitated two Sundance workers to resign.
Final 12 months, the pageant recognised a movie that humanised the plight of refugees – the animated documentary Flee – however it, too, depicted a Muslim-majority nation – Afghanistan – with the same old tropes about warfare and struggling. The movie is now nominated for finest animation, documentary and overseas language characteristic on the Academy Awards.
The tendency to characterize the Center East and the Muslim world at massive in only a single dimension – as a spot of battle, violence and struggling – has additionally mirrored on native cinema. Most Arab movies nominated for a Greatest International Language Movie award on the Oscars have both adopted tales of terrorism and warfare or highlighted societal breakdown, permitting Western audiences to really feel a way of ethical superiority whereas watching them.
Movies reminiscent of Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad’s Omar and Paradise Now or Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, though good works in their very own proper, characterize just one side of life within the Center East. One has to surprise after we will see Arab equivalents of romantic films like LaLa Land or self-discovery options like Nomadland on the Oscars, although a lot exist.
Sadly for gifted Arab filmmakers, Hollywood’s preferences do have an effect on their possibilities of garnering worldwide recognition. For instance, current Iraqi movies which have made it on massive screens overseas overwhelmingly relate to terrorism and warfare, together with Mohamad al-Daradji’s The Journey and Mohanad Hayal’s Haifa Avenue (additionally accessible on Netflix).
However there additionally appears to be a pushback from the Arab filmmaker group towards these stereotypes imposed from overseas. In a current interview, Rafia Oraidi, a Palestinian producer, defined, “We need to present there are many different tales in Palestine apart from warfare, destruction and the occupation”.
On this context, having a movie like Good Strangers on a world platform like Netflix can assist counter problematic storylines and open more room for Arab cinema to make it massive amongst worldwide audiences. Maybe the one barrier that exists presently for Smayra’s movie is that it has not been made accessible in English.
Given the current success of foreign-language movies like Parasite and exhibits like Squid Sport, subtitle size shouldn’t be seen as a barrier to reaching worldwide audiences. Netflix would do properly to recognise this truth and make the movie accessible to Anglophone audiences.
In any case, the discharge of Good Strangers was a step in the suitable for Arab cinema and streaming platforms like Netflix. It demonstrates that there’s a rising consciousness inside the trade that the Center East can’t be decreased to one-dimensional narratives about warfare and terror. Maybe within the subsequent few years, we’ll get to see extra numerous movies like Good Strangers, exhibiting genuine Arab storylines, make it on a world scale.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.