Beirut-based production powerhouse Cedars Art Productions is having one of its best Ramadan runs ever with eight new series that are all currently scoring stellar ratings during the region’s peak TV season across the Arab world.
The prominent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region film and TV company – which also has offices in Cairo, Casablanca, and Dubai – is heading to the Cannes MipTV market with a slew of shows, many of which push boundaries in an effort to appeal to a younger generation of Arab viewers.
Case in point is timely drama “Soul Rising” featuring Egyptian star Menna Shalabi as a young woman named Rouh who, in search of her son, winds up captive at an ISIS camp for female fugitives amid fierce fighting in Syria. This series has been submitted for International Emmy consideration, said Cedars’ president Sadek Anwar Sabbah.
Speaking exclusively to PvNew, Sabbah pointed out that this year’s Ramadan season, which ends on April 20, is showing a change in the appetite Arab audiences have for TV series. “I see that people are drawn to love stories and suspense and action scenes” he said. Sabbah noted that, in a break with the past, Arab viewers are proving to be less interested in the slower long-running shows that are specific to the region.
“Our Arabic audience is largely aged between 20 and 40 and they don’t want to see [Arab] soaps,” he said.
As a prime example of Cedars-produced Ramadan shows currently scoring thanks to a smartly concocted mix of action and romance tropes, Sabbah cited historical drama “Al Zennd” featuring Arab world A-lister Taim Hasan (“Al Hayba”). It involves social conflicts, political conspiracies and, of course, a heated love affair, all against the turbulent backdrop of end-of-19th century Syria.
Other Cedars shows getting plenty of eyeballs with similar ingredients are Egyptian series “The Genius” starring Amr Saad (“Baraka”) as a young man named Youssef who after being falsely accused of killing his mother escapes from Egypt. He winds up entangled in a southern African gangland scenario before returning to uncover the intrigue behind his beloved mom’s death. Besides shooting in Egypt, production of this show travelled to Kenya, “which opened up a whole other layer in the Egyptian series [genre],” said Sabbah.
Then there is “Finally,” which was shot in Lebanon. It features popular screen duo Nadine Nassib Njeim and Kussai Khauli, who previously co-starred in the hit series “2020” now playing on Netflix globally. In “Finally” they play a young couple named Yakout and Khayal about to be married. Khayal is kidnapped by a gang of human traffickers, prompting an action-packed epic journey. Sabbah said he is in talks with Netflix to make a ten-episode spin-off of “Finally” for Ramadan 2024.
Cedars Arts, which has a longstanding rapport with Netflix, now has a deal in place with the streaming giant for a six-episode pan-Arab series titled “Romeo” that is expected to start shooting in December. Other details on this series are being kept under wraps.
The company’s next big project is “The Bank 1974,” a series about a group of revolutionary Arab youths who in 1974 stormed into a Beirut branch of Bank of America hurling grenades and took the bank’s employees as hostages demanding $10 million and the liberation of jailed Palestinian fighters. The drama unfolds in full when police turn up the heat. “The Bank” is being described as “A story of class war, love and betrayal, murder and revolution.” The plan is to start shooting the show in August in Cedars’ state-of-the-art studios in Lebanon. Sabbah has international ambitions for this series which he said will be made “on a large scale” in his ongoing effort “to increasingly collaborate with international streaming platforms and take Middle East dramas to global audiences.
