The “Shahid” platform will soon witness several changes in terms of Arab-produced drama. This news is not born of the hour, but rather a decision issued a while ago, and it revolves around the need to change the name of the platform, and to establish a new policy that gives a young spirit to the platform that has entered into monotony, in addition to moving away from reproduction that contributed to the decline of Arab dramatic content instead of its development.
However, this new policy did not distance “witness” from a group of collaborations that we will witness soon, including the series “Araba Beirut”, directed by Philip Asmar, whose script was previously written by Egyptian Maryam Naoum. Today, the production process of the work was taken over by Eagle Films (Jamal Sinan), which assigned the task of directing to Asmar.
“Araba Beirut” brings together the Syrian actor Mahyar Khadour again, in his second collaboration with “Eagle Films”, with director Philip Asmar, after his participation last Ramadan in the series “For Death” (text by Nadine Jaber).
Khaddour is participating in the “Araba Beirut” starring Nour Ghandour, and it is supposed to be shown next fall, after the company fulfilled all the rights to publish it, and began forming the work team. While intersecting information said that actress Julia Kassar will also participate in this different experience in form and content.
For her part, Syrian director Rasha Sharbatji announced, in a statement to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that she is preparing to sign a special joint Arabic series for Ramadan 2024 with a production company, after a years-long absence from this type of production, and her preoccupation with a group of purely Syrian works. The most prominent of which is “Breaking a Bone” (the story of Ali Moeen Saleh), which achieved the highest viewership two years ago.
It is expected that the cooperation will be between Sharbatji and the “Cedars Art Production” company (Sadiq Al-Sabah), and the last cooperation between them was in the series “Ma Fei” written by Claudia Marshalian, and “Tariq” (Kuttab’s Workshop).
Although Sharbatji did not disclose the name of the work, leaks from within the production companies stated that the series would be titled “Nazrett Hob” (written by Rafi Wehbe), and would bring together the Syrian actor Basil Khayyat and the Lebanese actress Carmen Basibes.
Carmen Bsaibes meets this time with Basil Khayyat, after a group of joint series in which she participated, perhaps the most prominent of which is “The Bride of Beirut” in two seasons, and a dramatic duet that succeeded, in the opinion of viewers, with the Tunisian Zafer El Abidine.
In the same context, he announced a duo that appears for the first time, and will bring together Nadine Nassib Njeim and the Syrian Muhammad Al-Ahmad in a scenario written by Bilal Shehadat and titled “2024”. In this series, director Philip Asmar returns to work with Cedars Art Production, after a dispute between the two parties that lasted for years.
The series to date consists of 15 episodes, but this does not negate the possibility of increasing the number of episodes due to the Ramadan show, which lasts 30 days.
Nadine Nassib Njeim had finished a duet that lasted three seasons with actor Qusai Khouli, and before that with Tim Hassan, who is also waiting to decide on his new dramatic project without any real details about the nature of the series, the date of its presentation, or the actors who will participate in the tournament.
