New six-part series Paranormal starts on Netflix today, and it’s another example of the diversity the platform is bringing to a wider audience.

It’s notable as it’s the first Egyptian original series Netflix has shown and promises to be the first of many. Paranormal has been filmed in Arabic, with audio also available in English, French and Polish. Subtitles are also available in Hindi.

Paranormal brings us Refaat Ismail, a cynical haematology professor with a dark sense of humour, has his world turned upside down and his lifelong scientific convictions questioned after he begins to experience paranormal activities. Along with his university colleague Maggie, they enter the paranormal world and try to save their loved ones from the immense danger that surrounds them. The story is based on the best selling thriller novel series with the same name by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.

Netflix’s ambitions are revealed in an interview with Ahmed Sharkawi, director of African and Arabic original series at Netflix on WION.

“Our plan is: invest in Arab creators, in Arab production, in Arab content. We have announced four projects, plus ‘Paranormal’…”

At Cultbox, we believe access to cultural diversity in film and television is a positive force; where would TV audiences be without Scandi Noir police shows, for example? Netflix provides a healthy stream of original non-English speaking shows, including The Gift (Turkish) now in its second series.

The cast includes Ahmed Amin as Refaat and Razane Jammal as Maggie. Ahmed Amin is better known in Egypt as a comedian whose 30 second comedy videos on FaceBook went viral in Egypt. He had this to say in the WION article mentioned above:

“We are on a global platform… so this is an opportunity that is different from any other opportunity we’ve worked on. We can now have fans from other regions, other countries, who speak other languages…”

You can watch the official trailer for Paranormal here.