Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: FOREIGNER [Fantasia Film Festival 2025 - Montreal, Canada - Virtual]
The aspect of acceptance is usually created in adolescence and the ability to understand social dynamics. Of course the essence of the alpha and the beta angles into the social hierarchy as well as class and, unfortunately race. "Foreigner" [World Premiere/Septentrion Shadows] takes the perspective of Jasmine (Rose Degham) who becomes embroiled with an almost "Mean Girls" situation when she moves to Canada from Iran. In Canada, she comes into contact with Rachel and her cohorts (Chloë MacLeod, Victoria Wadell and Talisa Mae Stewart) who with their Stepford demeanors and smiles (think the recent movie "Smile"), the disdain contained under primed glass is palpable. And they keep pushing her for their own amusement. Jasmin just wants to fit in and her father and her aunt don't want her to forget her Iranian roots (though Jasmin knows kids can be cruel). Of course her relatives seem oblivious to it.
Jasmin wants to be cool but also watches teen shows to learn English so her perspective of the culture is already skewed. When the girls start pressuring her to die her brown hair blonde, it is starts to break down her psyche. Her aunt sees it as a demon (a djinn of sorts) that sees a opening in which to assert power. This is of course where the fantasy element enters in. Her eye colors change. The deadened smile goes up. A party later in the movie (like any good trope) is sort of the culmination of the problems where the context of Rachel and her reasoning comes into play. The issue is that what happens next doesn't really fit into the reasoning of the film or its practical resolution. It is metaphorical which has its point but it makes the resolution/coda lack a certain consequence even though Jasmin's heartfelt speech at the end is riveting in its own right (even if her classmates don't understand it). And of course that is part of the point. B
By Tim Wassberg
