This Ramadan season there is a rich variety of genres on TV with several formerly supporting actors playing leads: Mohamed Farrag in Montahi Al-Salaheya (Expired), directed by Tamer Nadi and written by Mohamed Hisham Obaya; and Ahmed Dawoud alongside Mariam Al-Khosht in Al-Sharnaka (Cocoon), directed by Mahmoud Abdel-Tawab.
Within minutes of watching Ekhwati (My Sisters), I recognised the signature style of screenwriter Mohab Tarek who last year penned Lahzet Ghadab (A Moment of Anger), directed by Abdel-Aziz Al-Naggar, which featured Saba Mubarak, Mohamed Shahine, Mohamed Farrag, and Ali Kassem. Mohab Tarek has a unique style of subtle, absurdist comedy where humour derives from accidents and aberrations being treated as normal. He brilliantly portrays characters who can maintain a composed demeanor against the odds.
Ekhwati (My Sisters) is directed by Mohamed Shakir Khodier, one of the more remarkable television directors whose name is associated with very successful titles like Taht Al-Wessaya (Under Guardianship, 2023), released during Ramadan two years ago and starring Mona Zaki, as well as the widely acclaimed Fi Kol Esbo Youm Gomaa (Every Week Has a Friday), based on Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid’s short novel, released in 2020 and starring Asser Yassin and Menna Shalabi. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, he also directed, respectively, Tariky (My Way), starring singing superstar Sherine, the ensemble-cast Grand Hotel, and La Totefi Al-Shams (Don’t Blow out the Sun), a 1961 film revival.
This is an unusual show, with many unusual elements including the music by Karim Gaber. The drama focuses on each character’s dreams and struggles, revealing their secrets in a funny way. The screenplay is rich with detail from the challenges of work and self-reliance to family conflicts and the search for truth, and the characters’ fates intertwine in a story that blends drama and mystery with a very distinctive sense of humor.
Ekhwati takes the viewer on a journey filled with excitement and suspense within the world of four sisters: Soha (Nelly Karim) and her husband Hisham (Ali Sobhi), a proud archaeologist; Ahlam (Rouby), the widowed mother of two young children who works as an Uber driver and keeps saying that it’s “a man’s job” she was forced into by her husband’s death of alcoholism, Nahed (Kenda Alloush), a pedicurist married to Farahat (Hatem Salah), and finally the eldest sister Naglaa (Gihan Al-Shamashergi), whose husband Rabei (Ahmed Hatem) is a suspicious, jealous man who alienates his wife and everyone.
Naglaa appears in the early scenes of the first episode watching a dream interpretation television show; she decides to call the show host recount her recurring dream of being woken up by loud knocking to find her husband stabbed to death on his side of the bed next to her. Within a few days of this, the dream has come true to down to the last detail. Terrified, Naglaa gathers her sisters and together with Hisham and Farahat they decide against reporting the incident to the authorities who will no doubt suspect Naglaa of being the murderer now that she spoke to the TV host, and instead approach Abdeen (Mohamed Mamdouh), an old friend of the family who, being a coroner’s office employee, can obtain a burial permit.
They let Ahlam do the talking since Abdeen used to be in love with her, and Ahlam informs him that they need a burial permit for Rabie, Naglaa’s husband. At first, he suspects nothing but when he insists that the process should proceed in the usual, legal way, they decide to leave. Then, when he is informed of the situation, he decides to take advantage of it: he will help them if he can marry Ahlam. Ahlam is at first resistant but agrees under pressure, and on the wedding night Abdeen takes Viagra and ends up dead, restarting the cycle of trouble...
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For his part this Ramadan screenwriter Mohab Tarek contributes Welad Al-Shams (Children of the Sun), directed by Shadi Abdel-Salam and starring Mahmoud Hemeida, Ahmed Malek, Taha Al-Dessouki and Farah Youssef. Focused on the world of orphanages and the corruption it involves, it follows two characters who having grown up in an orphanage are suffering from the Stockholm syndrome and continue to live there Welaa (a nickname that translates as “flame,” played by Ahmed Malek), and Moftah (also a nickname that means “key,” played by Taha Al-Dessouki).
They are two individuals with different temperaments and ways of thinking, and in time they enter into conflicts with the owner of the orphanage, Maged (Mahmoud Hemeida), a drug baron who has employed them in theft. Welaa and Moftah rebel against Maged, who promptly declares war on them; they try to rid the world of him and protect other orphans from his evils...
Walaa is in love with Sahar (Farah Youssef), a single mother who is much older than him, whose son Sayed works as a tuk-tuk driver. Sahar will not marry Welaa because of the age difference and her son’s refusal. Moftah is in love with Soad (Gala Hisham), Maged’s greedy secretary who informs on Moftah. A third amorous entanglement involves another henchman of Maged’s, the circus dwarf Ebeid who is in love with the orphan Amina (Donia Maher)...
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Two TV series are sequels: Kamel Al-Addad 3 (Full House 3), directed by Khaled Al-Halafawi; and Ashghal Shaqqa Gedan 2 (House Duties 2), directed by Khaled Diab. Both are facing difficulty in generating new material.
As for Kamel Al-Addad 3, the screenplay, written by Rana Abul-Reish and Youssr Taher, goes round and round in the same circles the first two seasons had exhausted. This season focuses on Sherif, the son of Laila (Dina Al-Sherbiny), who has signed a contract to play football in Turkey and how his mother is trying to keep an eye on him while he lives abroad. Other plots include that Farida, the daughter of Ahmed (Sherif Salama), after she and her fiancé Seif part ways due to a fight caused by another young man, Aly, whom she can’t stay away from. Ahmed once again loses his mind and acts like an over-protective father. In the same ambiance of the big family with all the grandfathers and grandmothers, this season also sees the emergence of two new characters: Shadia (Ingy Al-Mokadem), who makes a sudden appearance as Sherif’s sister whom nobody knew of, along with Adel (played by Hussein Fahmy), a cousin of Taymour (Ahmed Kamal) who is helping him in his new business of the wellness retreat.
In the second season of Asghal Shaqqa Gedan, Hamdi (Hisham Maged) and Yasmine (Asmaa Galal) are parenting four children and their life is unstable: Hamdi faces problems in his career with Arabi (Mustafa Gharib), while Yasmine decides to seek a career in acting, which Hamdi strongly opposes. The plot relies mainly on the comedy resulting from the recruitment of different housekeepers.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 March, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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