Status: 01/31/2022 04:32 a.m
Homosexuality, affairs, erotic secrets: The Lebanese Netflix production “Foreign Friends” breaks with the traditions of the Arab world. Resistance is forming against this – especially in Egypt.
The first Arabic-language Netflix feature film became a smash hit in just a few days. “The strip is currently the number one streamed film in the entire region, and that’s enormous. It certainly poses a threat to the Arab regimes because it presents uncontrolled liberal views and is convincing and attractive at the same time,” says the renowned Egyptian film critic Joseph Fahim in an interview with the ARD– Studio Cairo.
“Ashab walla al-Azz”, roughly “The Very Best Friends”, is the Arabic adaptation of an Italian feature film. During a social dinner in Beirut, seven friends decide to put their phones on the table and openly disclose all their communications – a game that quickly causes tears and confusion.
A scandal in Egypt
One of the friends is outed as gay. Another over the phone allows his 17-year-old daughter to spend the night with her boyfriend, even though her parents had recently found condoms on her. The erotic Facebook affair of one of the mothers in the group is revealed. Before she meets the friends, she had taken off her panties.
And since this woman is played in the Lebanese Netflix production by Mona Zaki, who is one of the most popular Egyptian actresses, the film becomes a scandal, especially in Egypt – partly because of the scene with the panties, but also because of the gay character in the film.
“The gays in the film are not stigmatized, they are actually portrayed in a sympathetic way – and that while the campaign against homosexuals in Egypt has been intensified in recent years,” says critic Fahim.
Morality guard on the battlement
A gay film character drives the self-appointed guardians of morality in politics and the media to insanity. Egyptian MP Ahmed Hamdy on a talk show on MBC Masr television: “We are demanding a law that criminalizes the normalization of this perversion, which some trivialize with the word ‘homosexuality’.”
The host of the Egyptian talk show asks him what he would do if one of his friends came out as gay. “First I would admonish him,” said Hamdy. “But if he doesn’t take my advice, I would report him. Freedom must have limits.”
Most people in the country probably still think the way the member of parliament does. Those who come out are threatened with hatred and discrimination. Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, but victims of homosexual acts can still be convicted of alleged violations of public morals.
Call for censorship
However, the Netflix strip is also defended. The Egyptian Actors’ Association emphasizes the freedom of the arts and strictly rejects disciplinary measures against the Egyptian actors involved. Also on the MBC Masr talk show, prominent Egyptian actress Elham Shaheen admits she can’t understand the excitement. “It’s a perfectly decent film. All of the action takes place at the dinner table. There isn’t a single erotic touch, not a single lewd word. The film is about adultery and someone who is gay. So what? The truth is, it is it is a respectable film and real cinema.”
But critics like Ahmed Hamdy are serious. “Such films violate the foundations of our religion and our national identity, they destroy society, the state, the youth and the future.” The MP regrets that the Egyptian government has no influence on Netflix. Nevertheless, the country can be protected, he points to Russia and China, countries that censor the Internet.
It’s not the first controversy surrounding Arabic Netflix content. The streaming provider is repeatedly accused of wanting to promote moral decay in the region with a secret plan. Film critic Joseph Fahim explains that Netflix is seen as part of a conspiracy to force normalization of homosexuality on Arab societies.