‘Foreigner’ Movie Review [Fantasia 2025]: Cultural Identity Gets Lost in a Scrambled Supernatural Tale

Photo from Saarthak Taneja/Fantasia Film Festival

From Jeff Nelson

In Foreigner, nothing is scarier than seeing the world from the outside. Writer/director Ava Maria Safai tells a familiar coming-of-age immigrant story through a supernatural lens, where identity and community ultimately serve as the means to redemption.

The movie opens with Iranian teenager Yasamin (Rose Dehgan), who recites dialogue from a cheesy English-language sitcom to master the language. After immigrating to Canada with her father, Ali (Ashkan Nejati), and grandmother, Zoreh (Maryam Sadeghi), she fears she won’t fit in. They embrace their culture with meals and music, but Yasamin simply wants to integrate into her new surroundings.

On the first day of school, the teenager catches the eye of a trio of popular girls: leader Rachel (Chloë MacLeod) and her followers, Emily (Victoria Wadell) and Kristen (Talisa Mae Stewart). Think Mean Girls, but there’s something particularly off about them. They push Yasamin to fit into their clique, turning her hair blonde and slowly morphing her into their idea of a “palatable” immigrant. Their racism seeps into her home, exacerbating her feelings of cultural shame. 

Ali and Zoreh see how the Canadian teenage lifestyle is changing their beloved Yasamin. The grief of losing her late mother continues to haunt the family, as they struggle to maintain their familial bond in both physical and emotional territories. The family dynamic is where Foreigner is most dramatically impactful. We care for these characters, but they don’t remain the narrative’s focus.

Safai’s screenplay is more concerned with Yasamin’s high school life, which is a mash-up of iconic movies. She relinquishes her identity and culture to fit into this trio of popular girls, who put her in uncomfortable situations drenched in racism. The further the teenager strays from her true self, the more she seems to awaken a dark force. The emphasis is wrongly placed in the coming-of-age tale, leaving the horror high and dry.

Passion was clearly put into making this story come to life, but the execution is a mixed bag. The performances are hit-and-miss, with Sadeghi delivering some of the film’s most earnest scenes. However, the trio of mean girls’ demonic smirking wears thin quickly. Special effects are similarly clunky, especially in the climax.

Foreigner isn’t tender, funny, or scary enough to succeed in any of the genres in this mash-up. Revelations of generational identity are buried underneath a muddled horror story that doesn’t know what it wants to be. 

Rating: 2/5

Foreigner played at Fantasia 2025 on July 31st.

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