Safai’s Foreigner is undoubtedly at its strongest when exploring the psychological and social pressures surrounding Yasi as she attempts to carve a new identity based on sitcoms, peer influence, and magazines, offering us a portrait of assimilation versus multiculturalism in a world lurching towards the former, that is both urgent and timely.
Finding your place in a new high school is a bewildering maze of uncertain choices, decisions and risks, but when that new high school is also in a new country thousands of miles away from the place you once called home, that maze can become a prison of endless dead ends. Young Yasamin (Rose Deghan), who has recently emigrated from Iran to Canada with her father, Ali (Ashkan Nejati), and her grandmother, Zoreh (Maryam Sadeghi), is about to enter that maze, and the very thought fills her with anxiety and uncertainty.
Yasmin worries she won’t make new friends, and that her grasp of English won’t be good enough to ‘fit in.’ She spends all her time watching sitcoms and reading teen magazines, learning everything she can about the latest trends in culture, fashion, and hairstyles, in an attempt to assimilate into Canadian culture before she walks through the doors of her new school. Yet the fears she carries continue to niggle at her, fears that she will never be viewed as a Canadian and will be a foreigner trapped on the hard shoulder of society. They are the same fears her mother carried, and Yasmin knows that they consumed her, leading to her death before they left Iran for a new life.
Her first day at the new school starts much as she expected, until she meets the creepy trio of Rachel (Chloë MacLeod), Emily (Victoria Wadell) and Kristen (Talisa Mae Stewart), three ‘popular’ girls who appear to be interested in her background and culture, yet display this interest through undermining remarks, ignorance and blatantly racist language. But Yasi needs friends, and they could unlock doors for her that otherwise remain barred. So, with no other options, Yasi decides to embrace the three girls, even dying her hair blonde to fit their wicked little circle. However, attempting to change one’s identity to fit in comes with significant risks. As Yasi distances herself from her dad and grandma and embraces the peer group that now has its claws firmly in her back, life becomes a dangerous dance with a silent devil nipping at her heels.
Written and directed by Ava Maria Safai, many will draw parallels between Foreigner and Mean Girls. While stylistically this may be accurate, Foreigner is far more complex in its deeply rooted exploration of identity, immigration, and assimilation versus multiculturalism.
Yasi lives between two worlds of influence and expectation born from her immigrant experience. At home, Yasi is Iranian, but at school, she identifies as neither Iranian nor Canadian. It’s a void of identity that Yasi must face, eventually choosing who she wants to be as she seeks to be adopted into peer groups that have already formed and often already have a culture and agenda in place. It’s within these discussions that Safai’s coming-of-age horror truly finds its voice. The exceptional performance of Rose Deghan elevates these themes as she beautifully portrays the inner conflicts and frictions of a teenage girl attempting to navigate her identity and sense of belonging in a new country.
Some of Foreigner’s most powerful scenes come from moments of introspection, such as Yasi watching a sitcom on repeat, copying every line of dialogue, to her rejection of her grandma’s carefully prepared lunch in favour of bland sandwiches from the school canteen, which she feels demonstrate her willingness to adapt. Equally strong is the psychological trauma of transformation, as Yasi rids herself of her beautiful dark hair under pressure from her new peer group, becoming a blonde monster just like the girls she thinks now care for her, but in reality, see her as a mere experiment.
Interestingly, Safai opts to take several detours from the psychological horror at the heart of Foreigner, embracing more mainstream horror, notably the introduction of an ancient Persian demon. Yet, this could be part of the deep conversations on the need to assimilate Foreigner embraces, as Safai, like her central character, feels the need to adopt more mainstream Western horror tropes for audience acceptance. It’s an interesting idea, and if I am right, it’s a stroke of pure genius from Safai, but one that the audience may miss.
Foreigner is an engaging coming-of-age horror that owes much to Carrie, Mean Girls, and Heathers in its visual style, while equally embracing far more complex themes of the push and pull faced by young migrants as they adapt to new social and cultural landscapes, much like those found in Horace Ovémore’s Pressure (1975). Safai’s film is undoubtedly at its strongest when exploring the psychological and social pressures surrounding Yasi as she attempts to carve a new identity based on sitcoms, peer influence, and magazines, offering us a portrait of assimilation versus multiculturalism in a world lurching towards the former, that is both urgent and timely.
Foreigner premiered at Fantasia Film Festival and will have its UK Premiere at FrightFest London on Friday, August 22, at Odeon Luxe West End.
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