Given Canada’s identity as a multicultural nation with a growing immigrant population, it’s no surprise that questions of identity and belonging amongst those just arriving in Canada have become recurring themes in its cinema. Many recent Canadian films have tackled the tension between generations: younger characters trying to assimilate into “white-Canadian” spaces. At the same time, their parents hold firmly to the customs of their home country. That push and pull—between fitting in and staying true to who you are—sits at the heart of Foreigner, the feature debut of Canadian-Iranian director Ava Maria Safai.
Inspired by the director’s own experience, the film follows Yasi, a teenager who moves from Iran with her father and grandmother and is about to start her first day at a Canadian school. Shy and insecure, she’s surprised when a trio of popular girls start bringing her into their circle—until the leader comments on her hair. That moment pushes Yasi to dye it blonde, an action that ends up awakening a demon.
As you can probably tell by the description, this film takes a lot of points from Mean Girls, making it more culturally specific (Lindsay Lohan never looked like an outcast immigrant), and with a horror twist. It later throws some shades of Carrie for good measure. It has a very short runtime, which means it doesn’t waste too much time on the obvious points we’ve seen a few times already, trusting the audience to fill in the blanks while the film briskly gives us all we need to understand what Yasi is going through.
Her home life, filmed always with warm but dimmed lights, has her father and grandmother clueless to what she is going through and not making any effort to fit in to the new country, discouraging the teenager from doing the same. They pack Iranian food for the girl, saying the cafeteria food at the Canadian school is bland and greasy. They speak in Farsi even when Yasi addresses them in English, and the father blasts loud Iranian music as he drops her off at school (don’t these characters have a minimal amount of common sense?).
This contrasts with how the school is filmed: cold but very lit, with an eerie and disturbing score. A true alien place for our protagonist. The three girls (who are way more than just inspired by the Mean Girls movie and might as well have borrowed their names) have their malice creepily filmed through the direction, moving in creepy synchrony. They are not particularly funny, and make the usual xenophobic comments—some out of malice, and some just from ignorance (one didn’t know what “Farsi” is). There is a small hint that the main antagonist and her parents are genuinely trying to connect at times, but it doesn’t truly lead anywhere.
Which brings us to our lead. Actress Rose Dehgan does a commendable job portraying Yasi’s nervousness, her awkwardness during introductions, and the glimmer in her eyes when she starts getting more attention than she expected. But her character’s transition happens very fast—both in the script and in the performance. The shift works thematically but feels too abrupt in practice. That jump ends up hurting the film’s ability to explore Yasi’s inner conflict in a deeper way, and comments she makes early on about missing her friends are largely ignored. The same happens with the thread involving her mother—it’s teased quite a bit in the first half but basically dropped in the rushed second. Stories this personal demand a more memorable protagonist—and unfortunately, Yasi’s arc feels like something we’ve seen before.
The horror elements are done well throughout, and some of the shots are striking—like the grandmother finding Yasi near the TV, or the first time we meet the three girls. There are a lot of close-ups of creepy smiles or visual detours into Yasi’s thoughts, which constantly bring to mind the film’s inspiration. Carrie and Mean Girls are the obvious ones, but there is quite a bit of Smile, and some visuals from Under the Skin. It all concludes neatly, never taking the audience to someplace truly new.
Still, Foreigner feels personal throughout. The immigrant angle from Mean Girls really does deserve its own horror version—and a more culturally grounded adaptation like this one makes far more sense than, say, a musical. I just wish the film had dug deeper, especially in its final stretch. It’s a good debut, but one that leaves you wanting just a little more.