“It has a wide audience and huge viewership which will give the show a true reach.” MBC is “one of the most important platforms in the Arab world,” he told AFP. “Art should be treated as art,” not as politics, he said.įor Alhajali, MBC’s popularity guarantees the show a wider audience. The series’ screenwriter Yemen Alhajli said, “Years of boycott of Syrian drama have caused us great loss.” The widespread exposure is seen as a boon for Syria’s war-ravaged film industry, which has been hit by dried-up funding and an exodus of key talent, mainly to Egypt and Dubai. The series is airing not only on MBC channels but also on popular streaming service Shahid, which is also owned by MBC Group. “This marks the beginning of a new way for TV networks in the Gulf to engage with Syrian dramas,” Ellsby said. “The return of Syrian social dramas is a success,” Elsby told AFP on the show’s set. In one scene, the security forces interrogate him and force him to name another opposition sympathizer who they later arrest. One of the main characters of the show is a man who had an inclination towards opposition in the early years of the war. The Syrian war drama was filmed in the Wadi Barda suburb of Damascus, a former battleground between rebels and government forces.įilled with clips of destruction and despair, the series revolves around the lives of Syrians who have returned to the region after years of displacement. “Syrian and Saudi bonds are returning through drama and politics-imposed restrictions on the arts are beginning to ease.” “Drama has defeated politics in the race to renew ties,” said Syrian journalist and researcher Badih Saniz. Last month, Assad visited the United Arab Emirates in his first official visit to the Arab state since the start of the Syrian war.Īlthough Riyadh has not officially restored ties with Assad, many see the latest development on television screens as a sign of a softer rapprochement. MBC has not yet responded to a request for comment.īut her decision to air the show comes amid heated ties between Saudi ally Assad and the United Arab Emirates, which reopened its embassy in Damascus in 2018.

The Arabic-language show, shot outside Damascus, is “the first social drama created entirely by Syrians to broadcast on a Saudi-owned TV channel since 2011”, when the country’s war broke out, director Seif Elsby said. In a sign of change, Saudi-owned MBC channel has started airing a Syrian-produced series, “مع وقف التنفيذ (suspension)” during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – a period that began on April 2 this year and During which viewership peaks in the Middle East.

But shows made exclusively by Syrians were largely abandoned.

Ar-ab welcome to trap street