Is Using EF Core Value Converter Preventing the Contains() LINQ Method from being Translated to SQL?

Question

I have a Movie class. It has a Genres property of type List<string>. I use this exact EF Core Value Conversion to store it in the database as a comma-separated string.

In my method, I have movies, which is of type IQueryable<Movie>. The method receives genres as a List<string>, and I want to filter the movies according to the genres.

When I apply this filter, this query fails to translate to the database.

var genre = "Drama";
movies = movies.Where(m => m.Genres.Contains(genre));

The filter works if I apply .ToListAsync() to movies and pull all the movies to the client-side. But I'm trying to find a way to do this on the database-side.

I've also tried these variations:

movies = movies.Where(m => m.Genres.Any(g => g.Contains(genre)));
movies = movies.Where(m => m.Genres.Any(g => g == genre));

I'm pasting in the error message below:

.Where(m => m.Genres .Contains(__genre_0))' could not be translated. Additional information: Translation of method 'System.Linq.Enumerable.Contains' failed. If this method can be mapped to your custom function, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2132413 for more information. Either rewrite the query in a form that can be translated, or switch to client evaluation explicitly by inserting a call to 'AsEnumerable', 'AsAsyncEnumerable', 'ToList', or 'ToListAsync'. See https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2101038 for more information.

If you want to reproduce it on your computer:

• Clone this github repository (filter-translation-issue branch)
• Put a breakpoint on SearchMoviesExtendedQuery.cs, line 53.
• Run the project(API should be the startup project), it will create the FreeFlixDatabase SQL Server database and seed ten movies, then it will open Swagger UI.
• In the Swagger UI, run the /api/catalog/MoviesSearch POST method with the message body: {"genres":["string"]}