Audiovisual translation (AVT), particularly subtitling, has gained prominence with the rise of streaming platforms like Netflix. These platforms offer multilingual options, facilitating cross-cultural exchange. However, translating culture-bound elements, such as idioms, presents significant challenges. Idioms, possessing connotative and implicit meanings deeply rooted in cultural contexts, require translators to understand both source and target cultures. While several studies exist on Arabic subtitling of English media, few have explored the reverse—the English subtitling of Arabic media. This study addresses this gap by examining the English subtitles of Egyptian idioms in two popular films: "The Great Chinese Beans" and "The Humans and the Mongoose." The research questions are: 1) What challenges do subtitlers face when rendering Egyptian idioms into English in these films? 2) What strategies are employed in subtitling these idioms?

The literature review examines the theoretical and empirical background of audiovisual translation and the specific challenges of idiom translation. It highlights the growth of AVT, the constraints of subtitling (spatial and temporal limitations), and the three key skills involved: spotting, rendering, and adaptation. The review discusses the linguistic, cultural, and pragmatic challenges of idiom translation, emphasizing the need for cultural competence and the application of appropriate translation strategies. Previous research on idiom translation in various language pairs and contexts is reviewed, including studies on Arabic-English translation, exploring different strategies such as paraphrasing, cultural substitution, literal translation, omission, and the use of similar idioms. The review highlights the importance of considering cultural and linguistic differences, and the need for both accuracy and cultural sensitivity in translation, especially in subtitling where space and time are limited.

This study employed a qualitative approach using a parallel corpus consisting of the Arabic dialogue (source text) and English subtitles (target text) from two Egyptian films ("The Great Chinese Beans" and "The Humans and the Mongoose") on Netflix. The Arabic dialogue containing idioms was manually transcribed, and these were then aligned with their English subtitles. Three MA candidates in Audiovisual Translation, possessing both academic background and practical experience, checked the corpus. The aligned corpus was analyzed qualitatively based on Baker's taxonomy of translation strategies to identify predominant patterns and cases of mistranslation. The films were selected based on genre (comedy/comedy-horror), high revenues indicating popularity, and the presence of the well-known Egyptian comedian, Mohamed Henedi, ensuring a representative sample of common idiomatic expressions.

The analysis of 31 idiomatic expressions revealed that "cultural substitution" was the most frequently employed translation strategy. This involved replacing the source language idiom with a target language idiom of similar meaning but different form. "Paraphrasing using unrelated words" was another common strategy, where the meaning of the idiom was conveyed using different lexical items. "Literal translation" was also observed but often resulted in meaning shifts or incomprehensible subtitles. The study also identified instances of "omission," where idioms were entirely excluded from the subtitles, and "mistranslation," attributed to a lack of cultural understanding or inappropriate strategy selection. Specific examples illustrating each strategy and its effectiveness (or lack thereof) are provided, highlighting the challenges posed by religious references, cultural symbolism (e.g., animals), and metaphorical expressions. The analysis demonstrates that the choice of strategy significantly impacts the accuracy and naturalness of the translation, emphasizing the need for cultural sensitivity and linguistic competence in subtitling.

The findings confirm the challenges of idiom translation in AVT, particularly in cross-cultural contexts. The preference for cultural substitution and paraphrasing reflects the need to adapt the translation to the target culture while maintaining meaning. The occurrence of literal translation and mistranslation highlights the limitations of a purely linguistic approach and the crucial role of cultural competence. The study's findings align with previous research on idiom translation difficulties, particularly the challenges of finding suitable equivalents, misunderstanding the idiom's meaning, and using inappropriate strategies. The study reinforces the importance of applying appropriate translation strategies based on the specific context and the need to balance cultural equivalence with naturalness in the target language. The limitations of this research are noted, including the dataset's size and focus on only two movies.

This study contributes to the understanding of subtitling strategies for idioms in cross-cultural AVT. It highlights the importance of cultural competence, appropriate strategy selection, and the limitations of literal translation. Future research could explore other Arabic dialects, diverse movie genres, and larger datasets to further refine understanding of this complex translation area. Investigating the influence of multimodal aspects of AVT on idiom translation and audience perception would be beneficial.

This study's scope is limited to two Egyptian films and a relatively small number of idiomatic expressions. The qualitative nature of the analysis limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research with a larger, more diverse corpus and potentially quantitative analysis could provide broader insights. The reliance on the Netflix subtitles assumes a certain level of quality and consistency in their production. This assumption should be investigated in future work.