{"id":4190,"date":"2026-03-05T03:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/4190\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:07:26","slug":"syrias-famed-ramadan-tv-dramas-are-testing-boundaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/4190\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria’s famed Ramadan TV dramas are testing boundaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) \u2014 Ramadan<\/a> in the Arab world is a time of fasting and prayer, but it brings another beloved tradition: the much-anticipated TV drama series<\/a> shot each year to be aired during the holy month.<\/p>\n

After iftar, the evening meal that breaks their daytime fast, families gather to watch their picks from the year\u2019s crop of soap operas and political and historical dramas, snacking on sweets and nuts and drinking tea and coffee until late into the night.<\/p>\n

The most anticipated productions are often Syrian<\/a>. While Egypt is known for its movies and Lebanon for its pop singers and composers, Syria\u2019s TV series have for decades been seen as the gold standard in the region.<\/p>\n

As the country emerges from 14 years of civil war, more than a year after Islamist-led insurgents brought the authoritarian Assad dynasty to an end<\/a>, Syria\u2019s TV industry is seeking its footing in the new order.<\/p>\n

A creative outlet fractured<\/p>\n

In the Assad years, when political expression was strictly curtailed, \u201ctelevision became the main sort of platform for freedom of expression and also for employment for artists and intellectuals,\u201d an area where they could subtly push boundaries, said Christa Salamandra, a professor of anthropology at Lehman College and the City University of New York who has researched Syrian drama.<\/p>\n

In 2011, mass anti-government protests were met by a brutal crackdown and spiraled into civil war.<\/p>\n

After that, \u201cthe industry fractured,\u201d Salamandra said. \u201cCreatives went into exile \u2014 or they stayed, but it split.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Assad\u2019s fall, actors and directors formerly divided along political lines are working together again. Series about once-taboo topics, like torture in Assad\u2019s notorious prisons, are being shot inside Syria.<\/p>\n

But like everything in the new Syria, the postwar trajectory of TV drama has been complicated.<\/p>\n

Television presenting once-forbidden stories<\/p>\n

On a chilly day the week before Ramadan, a television crew had transformed a street in central Aleppo into something magical.<\/p>\n

In the background, collapsed buildings were a reminder that the city had been a central battleground in Syria\u2019s civil war, but the cameras had transported the street back to a more innocent age. Classic 1970s cars and a horse-drawn court lined it as a vendor wearing a tarboush hat sold sahlep, a sweet drink of hot thickened milk and spices.<\/p>\n

The series \u2014 titled \u201cAl-Souriyoun al-Aada\u201d or \u201cThe Syrian Enemies\u201d \u2014 is based on a novel of the same name that was banned during former Syrian President Bashar Assad\u2019s rule because of its focus on dark moments in Syria\u2019s history, including the \u201cHama massacre\u201d of 1982. <\/p>\n

At the time, then-President Hafez Assad \u2014 Bashar Assad\u2019s father \u2014 ordered an attack on the city of Hama to quell a rebellion by the Muslim Brotherhood. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people were killed or disappeared in the monthlong assault and siege that left the city in ruins.<\/p>\n

In the small-screen version, Yara Sabri, a prominent actor who left the country for years due to her opposition to the autocratic government, appears as the mother of a troubled young man from a rural village who will become a major player in the country\u2019s oppressive security apparatus.<\/p>\n

Wissam Rida, who plays her son, said that as a young actor starting out in Damascus, performing alongside exiled stars like Sabri once seemed an impossible dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to watch them when I was younger and wish that I could work with them,\u201d he said. After Assad\u2019s fall, Rida said, \u201cThey came back with such beautiful energy you can\u2019t imagine, and you can\u2019t imagine how much we were in need of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

New authorities lack experience<\/p>\n

Still, production has not been without difficulties.<\/p>\n

\u201cAl-Souriyoun al-Aada\u201d director Allaith Hajjo is known for shows like \u201cDayaa Dayaa\u201d (\u201cA Lost Village\u201d), a comedy about life in a small mountain community, and \u201cIntizar\u201d (\u201cWaiting\u201d), a social drama about an impoverished Damascus suburb. He never left Syria.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the days of the (Assad) regime\u2019s existence, we were always trying to put forward material that would go over the heads of the censors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Back then, \u201cI dealt with actors who were a red line in the eyes of the regime,\u201d Hajjo said. \u201cAt the same time, now I am dealing with people who may be rejected\u201d by the current authorities.<\/p>\n

The production has been attacked on social media because of the presence of some actors seen as close to Assad. Hajjo said politics should have no role in casting.<\/p>\n

He added that the new authorities have little experience in dealing with artistic productions and that the work had run into \u201csome problems\u201d with censors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s their right to need some time to gain experience, but I hope this time won\u2019t affect the quality and the level\u201d of the output, he said.<\/p>\n

The National Drama Committee, the government body responsible for reviewing scripts, did not respond to questions.<\/p>\n

The series, originally set to air during Ramadan, has been delayed in production and likely will air after the holy month.<\/p>\n

Director Rasha Sharbatji, who shot the Ramadan series \u201cMatbatkh al Medina\u201d (\u201cThe City\u2019s Kitchen\u201d), said she had found the new authorities accommodating.<\/p>\n

She added that she had met interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa<\/a> \u201cand he is personally interested in drama and appreciates how important it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it remains to be seen if his government will permit TV dramas to talk openly about problems that have occurred post-Assad, including outbreaks of sectarian violence in which government forces were implicated.<\/p>\n

Salamandra said creators likely will \u201cmake serials about the old atrocities with subtle references to the recent ones. Because that\u2019s what they\u2019ve always done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Returning to rebuild an industry<\/p>\n

Jihad Abdo is among the exiled stars who have returned. A top actor in the 1990s and early 2000s, he fled Syria in 2011 after voicing criticism of Assad.<\/p>\n

He started over in the United States, where he begged for entry-level jobs and had to change his name from Jihad \u2014 a common name among both Muslim and Christian Arabs that means \u201cstriving\u201d \u2014 to Jay to work in Hollywood, where many associated \u201cjihad\u201d with extremism.<\/p>\n

Eventually he landed roles in some major productions, including with Nicole Kidman in the 2015 film \u201cQueen of the Desert.\u201d But he longed for home.<\/p>\n

Now back in Damascus, he appears in the web series \u201cAl-Meqaad al-Akheer\u201d (\u201cThe Last Seat\u201d), a social drama airing during Ramadan, as a man struggling with Alzheimer\u2019s. And he now leads Syria\u2019s General Organization for Cinema, where he faces the daunting prospect of rebuilding the Syrian film industry with no budget.<\/p>\n

Abdo said that \u201cthe margin of the freedom is bigger\u201d than in Assad\u2019s time and the government has not told him that any subject is off limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not sure yet about how this margin of freedom will be shaped,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are trying to make it as big as possible, because we need to address the problems in order to solve them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abdo believes the TV industry has a role to play in Syria\u2019s postwar reconciliation by telling human stories and by showing that those with different political views can work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wound is big, it\u2019s bleeding, it is still open,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s our responsibility, the people in entertainment, the intellectuals, prominent names, to bring everybody together again and to keep talking, no matter how different we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press journalist Omar Sanadiki contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALEPPO, Syria (AP) \u2014 Ramadan in the Arab world is a time of fasting and prayer, but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1828,887,2970,2973,2093,197,2971,81,2972,463,95,82,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-4190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-ahmad-al-sharaa","9":"tag-bashar-assad","10":"tag-censorship","11":"tag-christian-arabs","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-nicole-kidman","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-rasha-sharbatji","17":"tag-religion","18":"tag-syria","19":"tag-world-news","20":"tag-yara-sabri"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116174366128912398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}