The Acting Professions Syndicate issued a statement regarding the controversy surrounding the Arabic version of the “Perfect Strangers” film, “Ashab Wala Aaz”.
The Acting Professions Syndicate said that it “followed closely all the reactions that appeared in the media and social media websites, and some opinions from political figures (individually or representing their parties)”.
As a result of this follow-up, the syndicate emphasized basic principles, the most important of which were:
- Preserving the freedom of creativity in a civil state that believes in freedom is an essential part of the conscience of Egyptian artists, which is protected and defended by the Syndicate.
- The Syndicate will not stand idly by in front of any verbal assault or attempt to intimidate any Egyptian artist as a result of an artwork contributed to with its author and director.
- The Syndicate, which supports all authentic values of the Egyptian society, stresses that the role of arts and soft powers is to address thorny issues and to sound the alarm on many phenomena that may infiltrate society.
It called upon everyone not to attack its members just because they participated in a work they disagreed on.
The producers of Netflix’s first Arab production film “Ashab, Wala Aaz” and actress Mona Zaki were subjected to harsh criticism from social media users, hours after the film was shown on the digital platform.
Critics accused the film of promoting homosexuality and said that Zaki uttered words they described as “pornographic”.
A hashtag with the name of the film topped the search engines online, becoming one of the most trending in the Arab world.
“Ashab, Wala Aaz” is an adaption of an award-winning Italian film of the name Perfect Strangers. The film will premiere on the streaming service with subtitles in 31 languages and dubbing in three languages.
