Terrorism is the dominating theme in two major soap operas series during Ramadan this year and aired through Arab television venues, like the Middle East Broadcasting Company (MBC), Syria, Jordan, and Abu Dhabi television stations.
During Ramadan, Arab families are accustomed during the time between iftar, the evening feast, and sohour, the pre-dawn meal to sit in front of TV screens for several hours of TV. Almost all Arab television stations drop the English newscasts and reduce their Arabic news to a minimum in favor of drama and comedy series.
Syrian Television produced one of these two soap operas, �Al-Hoor Al-Eine� or �The Pure and Beautiful Ones.� The 30-episode series, weaves in and out of the homes of Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan and Syrian families living in a residential complex in Saudi Arabia before becoming victims of a terrorist attack.
The series is based on a real life incident when booby-trapped cars were blown up in a residential complex in Riyadh in November 2003, killing 17 and injuring 120 others. Those killed included Saudis, Sudanese, and Egyptians but no Westerners.
Syrian Television, known to air some of the most popular soap operas, is airing the series in the evening during Ramadan just as families sit on their couches, rendered helpless from the heavy meal after a long day of fasting. MBC, which is partially financed by Saudi money, is also airing the show.
The show is unique because all families talk in their own dialects (Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan and Syrian) as well as Sudanese and Saudi dialogue. Usually only one dialect is used to make it easy for the audience to understand. The Moroccan dialect is hardest to understand for non African Arabs.
The other drama series aired this year, �Al Tareq Al Waer� or �Rocky Road,� solves this problem by using the modern Standard Arabic, which is understood by most Arabs.
The Rocky Road is about a terrorist cell returning to Jordan from Afghanistan as they were plotting their final and most powerful terrorist attack. The series is also based on a real life incident in Jordan in March of 2004, the Jordanian government uncovered a plot to target the Jordanian General Intelligence Department in Amman with a chemical bomb. The arrested terrorists were interviewed at length on Jordanian TV.
This series successfully shows the double lives of terrorists and the struggle they find themselves in after their return to Jordan.
The series was produced by Abu Dhabi Television and aired during prime time, displacing a popular news program.
[via: New America Media]
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i’ am watching both series “Al Tareq Al Waer” and “Al-Hoor Al-Eine” and i think the first one is more enjoybale and reasonable than Al-Hoor Al-Eine …
there is more action and the directing better, also the acting …
but the other one Al-Hoor Al-Eine is really boring. also i heared from pepole in Riyadh that its a real story happned in one of Riyadh compounds that were attacked …
i think its intresting only for pepole who lived in one of these compounds in Riyadh.
also about Al Tareq Al Waer i have read that its the same story for the last year series “al-tarek ella kabul” that was stoped last Ramdan, but this time the writer rearranged the events and made more reasonabel …
As for Al Tareq Al Waer, I was told it is the real story of the Terrorist group who had planed to attack the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID).
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