Having no plan to disclose his sexuality, Rabih and Sherif switch their similar phones to help the latter avoid a scandal. Rabih shows up alone to the dinner, hosted in May and Walid's home, after having told his friends – three married couples – that he will introduce his new girlfriend (Rasha) to them that night.
Starring Egyptian Mona Zaki (Maryam), Lebanese Nadie Labaki (May), Georges Khabbaz (Walid), Adel Karam (Ziad), Diamand Bou Abboud (Jana), Fouad Yammine (Rabih), and Jordanian Eyad Nassar (Sherif), the movie tells the story of seven upper-class Egyptian and Lebanese friends in their mid-forties who play a game by placing their phones on the dinner table and all calls, texts, and voice messages must be shared with everyone as they come, uncovering ample secrets and scandals on a lunar eclipse-watching night in Lebanon.Īmongst the several taboo sociocultural issues that deemed the movie as " morally corrupt for Arab culture", the most central storyline in the heated debate has been that of Rabih, a gay university professor.
The movie, co-produced by UAE, Lebanese, and Egyptian entertainment companies, portrays storylines on marriage, women's sexuality, drinking and driving, mental health stigma, anti-patriarchal fatherhood, teenage and safer sex, and to top it all, homosexuality and the challenges facing queer Arabs. Since the streaming giant Netflix released its Arabic version of the Italian movie " Perfect Strangers" on January 20, the Arab world has been overwhelmingly consumed by a socio-cultural debate.