Perfect Strangers, a brilliant Israeli film

Israeli movies and television series normally show comedies,  young soldiers or religious families, but less often middle-class, secular Israelis, the kinds of people who live in the sub­urbs like the rest of the middle class world.

But it is just these kinds of Israelis who were the focus of dir­ec­t­or Lior Ashkenazi’s Perfect Strangers (2021). Although the theme of Perfect Strangers remained ess­en­t­ially the same across all the it­er­ations of this movie, Ashkenazi added his own Isr­aeli spin on this version, his directorial debut. eg the surgeon was haunted with tragedy because a friend had been killed in the army. His wife in turn was anxious over her son’s entry into military, once he was conscripted.

Seven childhood friends, three couples and a newly divorced man, met in one of their homes, to catch up over a dinner and a LOT of drinks, and to watch a rare lunar eclipse. In order to add some ex­citement to the dinner, the hostess decided to play a game: every text message re­ceived on their phones was to be read out loud, and every incoming call answered on speakers. Despite the friends’ rel­uct­­an­ce, the 7 phones were placed in the centre of the table and left un­locked! Since Israelis are as attached to their phones as anyone, or more so, this Israeli reworking made sense.

Sharing every text message, call or notice that app­eared on their phones led to betrayals, secrets and unresolved issues, th­reatening their friendships and marriages. The game had predictably disastrous results, I'd say, but did the friends not realise that the process would expose dark secrets?

Actors Moran Atias and Yossi Marshek were the couple holding the din­ner party for their childhood friends, he a plastic surgeon and she a parent of a computer-nerd teen. Their friends are a contr­ac­t­or and his wife (Han­an Savyon and Rotem Abuhab), shop owner and young­er girl­friend (Guy Amir and Shira Naor) and a single sports coach (Avi Grainik). Apparently everyone had something to hide, both from their partners and the others, so that during the night, tempers frayed and long-buried grudges emerged.

But was this film really a comedy-drama? Ashkenazi ass­em­bled a cast of performers, many of whom were best known for tv comedy, not for extremely dramatic roles. I might not have seen any comedy, but I really did believe the characters were indeed old friends.

The point of the film, as I saw it, was that everyone has something to hide and that peoples’ willing­ness not to look too hard into the dark corners of others’ lives is in fact a safety mechanism. Before mobile telephones, few problems were presented. But as the story showed, a mobile phone could function as a bomb that de­stroyed ev­ery­thing around. Since mobiles contained so much information, they had the power to cause irreparable damage to relationships.

 The hosts and guests go out onto the balcony 

And as the dinner prog­ressed, the innocent, mundane calls became more revealing, more earth-shattering for every­one around the table. Sec­r­ets and lies about infid­el­­ities, money issues and ment­al ill health were expos­ed, leaving the once close-knit group comp­l­etely broken. [And the view­ers!].

The drama­tic path of the film steadily built to a dev­ast­ating crescendo that left all of the characters exposed; the il­lusions each had about the others may have been shattered for good. Every member of the group, friends they had known since high school, had been leading a double life! Perfect Strangers’ message was one for our time. The twist at the end, the same twist made in versions of the story from Italy, Leb­anon etc may have shocked viewers. But it was an effective device used to close the powerful story

Conclusion
Each national version of Perfect Strangers clearly added local col­our, which heightened the story’s universal aspects.  Although I don't know whether such a game would flush out embarrassing secrets amongst my own friends' dinner parties. Yet I still found it ir­on­ic that the diners’ own ph­ones really did betray their deepest held secrets and showed the ways hum­ans hide their true nat­ure! I act­ually believed whether this excellent film was asking whether honesty was indeed the best policy!?! Facing big and small secrets, the film show­ed friendships and marr­iag­es that were sev­erely tested. It did not show who would break up and who would get tog­ether again!