Unlike the producers of entertainment and political shows, drama makers insist that they have been brave enough to confront the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime long before former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster earlier this July. Series this year are shockingly bold, criticize the social reality and challenge the conservative morals the Brotherhood was intending to strictly apply.
Unlike the producers of entertainment and political shows, drama makers insist that they have been brave enough to confront the Muslim Brotherhood’s regime long before former President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster earlier this July. Series this year are shockingly bold, criticize the social reality and challenge the conservative morals the Brotherhood was intending to strictly apply.
Most of these series were shot during Morsi’s year-long rule, and coincided with toppling the president. Had Morsi not been overthrown, these series would have likely been overwhelmed by law suits and censors.
Minors, elders and adultery
‘Hot Wave’ is a series starring Iyad Nassar, with a screenplay by Mariam Na’oom and directed by Mohamed Yassin who, before the revolution, produced a series about Hassan al-Banna, the Brotherhood’s founder. ‘Hot Wave’ is the first series, which expressly tells viewers that it is intended only for adults.
‘Minors’ is another series, which specifies the age of its viewers; it tackles a very sensitive subject for the Brotherhood, namely getting married to a minor on the pretext of religion, poverty or both.
The third series considered only for adults is ‘Hayat’s Story’ starring pro-Mubarak actress Ghada Abdurrazeq. It boldly tackles casual adultery.
New charge on TV
The artistic evaluation of these series is controversial, especially the link between the subjects and the professional artistic treatment. However, the scale of debate on social-networking sites and the high percentage of advertisements, which are linked to a high viewing rate suggest that people, influenced by the revolution, want shocking series that reveal the corruption of the recent past and the present.
Debates have also exceeded the shocking and the unspeakable to reach the language used in some scenes. In ‘Hot Wave’ for example, a corrupt Muslim cleric accuses a revolutionary young man of atheism, the same way the Brotherhood’s supporters accused their opponents of the revolutionary forces. The accusation of being godless is featured for the first time in a highly viewed series. In ‘Hayat’s Story’, actor Salah Abdullah says: “Sometimes we forget God is there,” which has proved highly controversial in the press, leading the series’ star, Ghada Abdurrazeq, to denounce it in a special media statement.
Alaa Mubarak on TV
The audacity exceeded subjects and dialogues and alluded to real figures, which are the subject of people’s rumors and tales. For example, the assumed affair in the early 1990s between Alaa, son of former President Hosni Mubarak, and superstar Sherihan was symbolically rather than expressly depicted in a series called ‘Friendly Fire’ by director Khaled Mer’i. According to the series, the affair led to distorting Sherihan’s body in an ambiguous accident and her disappearance before reappearing in the Tahrir Square during the revolution.
Boldness a result of revolutionary youth
Most of the bold series have been made by new, young people unlike the senior actors, such as Adel Imam, who presented traditional drama. Wael Hamdi, a scenarist and co-author of ‘Hot Wave’, stressed that the decision to add the 18 and older warning label was taken by the series’ team. It has been agreed that a series that includes scenes about prostitution in Egypt and a torturing scene in which a policeman puts a stick in a suspect’s bottom, which emulates a real incident that opened the torture file under Mubarak seven years ago, cannot pass without a warning for families. He demands that this system is applied to drama as well as cinema to save scenarists and drama makers from the official censor’s cuts and make viewing shocking series the responsibility of viewers as is the case outside Egypt.
Serious drama wins despite sarcasm
Classifying drama works as ‘only for adults ‘ attracted the attention of film critic Majdi Tayeb who stressed that filmmakers repeatedly demanded this classification but this brave step came from drama makers. He underlines that drama this year is different because this classification step has stemmed from the artists’ consciousness and to stop the censor from intervening.
He hails drama makers who have had the courage to present series challenging the Brotherhood and the critical eye of their followers who used to file complaints and launch distortion campaigns. He demands the distinction between those who have presented real drama that crosses red lines and those who have presented comedies that have very superficially made fun of the ousted president’s speeches and whose scenes are based on the political jokes, which were circulated during Morsi’s year-long reign. The latter, says Tayeb, have lost their bet that viewers will resort to comedy, regardless of its level since they are bored with political events, while the opposite has been true. People have found out that serious drama either attempts to interpret reality or helps raise their political awareness through highlighting the different historical periods, which have led to the current situation.
Integral showing system is needed
Professor of Public Opinion in Cairo University, Dr. Safwat Alem, believes that the issue is not only about setting an age limit for viewers but also about adopting a show system that takes into consideration the content, for example, showing ‘adults only’ series after 11:00 p.m. Such a system, Alem says, should be agreed on by all channels to avoid any inconveniences such as showing a series in full on one channel and trimming some scenes on another. He underscores that Egyptian drama, if continued on this track, would finally contribute to changing the societal consciousness and would be a starting point for the Arab drama, which has long been showing social stories more like bedtime stories.
