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Netflix Announces First Arabic Original Film “Perfect Strangers”

December 22, 2021
Photos Credit: RUDY BOU CHEBEL /NETFLIX
Photos Credit: RUDY BOU CHEBEL /NETFLIX

Netflix announced on Tuesday the upcoming release of its first ever Arabic original film As7ab Wala A3az (“Perfect Strangers”) featuring a star-studded Pan-Arab cast.

The film, which will be released on the global streaming giant on 20 January 2022, is directed by Wissam Smayra and stars Mona Zaki, Nadine Labaki, Eyad Nassar, Georges Khabbaz, Adel Karam, Fouad Yammine and Diamand Abou Abboud.

According to Netflix, the film is inspired by the 2016 Italian film by Paolo Genovese of the same title, and “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,” explains Netflix in a press release.

The Italian “Perfect Strangers” holds the Guinness World Record for the most remade film in cinema history, with a total of 18 versions of the film in various languages including French, Turkish, Greek, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Dutch, Israeli and more.

The upcoming Arabic version is produced produced by Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Film Clinic, Empire Entertainment and Yalla Yalla. Netflix says it is the first of many films produced by Front Row as part of a first look deal signed with Netflix.  Recently, Front Row had announced an Arabic remake of the wildly successful French film “Intouchables”.

Prior to As7ab Wala A3az, Netflix’s original Arabic content had been limited to television shows such as Al-Rawabi School for Girls (Jordan), Paranormal (Egypt), Abla Fahita (Egypt), and Jinn (Jordan).

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