The First Gleam Of Dawn (AL Khait AL Abiadh)
A social and political drama of 28 episodes, telecast by many Arab-speaking TV stations in 2004. It tells the true story of the media which is totally controlled and supervised by the government. It depicts the government’s endeavours to promote entertainment and comedy programs among TV program makers while trying to ban programs that criticize corruption and mismanagement.These four drama series were directed by Haytham Hakky
The life of Kahlil Gibran
The first TV series about the early life of Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese-born writer and painter born in 1883. The 30-part series was broadcast throughout the Middle East in 2008. An important figure in Arab literature, Gibran’s career in America which included his work The Prophet made him one of the most famous writers in western popular culture. Directed by Fardos Atassi.
The Silk Market (Khan Al-Harir)
A TV serial of 23 episodes first telecast in 1996 and immensely popular with viewers. Its events take place in the 1950s in Syria, a time of serious political tensions which led to the short-lived union between Syria and Egypt. It depicts the social, economic and political life at the time through the lives of people connected to the Aleppo silk market, home of the famous textile trade.
The Silk Market (Part II)
A TV serial of 25 episodes produced by the Orbit Satellite Channel and telecast in 1998, which was widely welcomed and as popular as the first series. It follows up the situation in Syria at the time of the Syrian-Egyptian union and its impact on the destiny of the characters introduced in the first series. The events continue up to the day of separation from Egypt and the breakup of the union. This serial explores the reason for the separation and identifies those responsible for it. Its screening inspired controversy and debate in official, academic and wider public circles. The full series has been screened throughout the Middle East (where it still being repeated many years later) as well as in Germany and in Australia where it was subtitled in English and broadcast twice by SBS channel.
Al-Thuraya (Al-Thuraya)
A serial of 33 episodes telecast in the beginning of 1997. It was widely acclaimed, winning a silver prize in the Cairo Festival for TV serials and programs the same year. The story spotlights the life of the family of a pasha of Turkish descent both at the eve and the morning of the Ottomans’ move out of Syria and the coming of the French. An epic of love and individual courage, it depicts an exceptional love story between Thuraya, the Pasha’s daughter, and an anti-Turkish highwayman who sympathises with the poor. It also depicts the beginning of cultural and political enlightenment in Syrian society.
Dramas for children
Tammam’s case (Qadiyat Tammam):
It is a serial of eight episodes that was telecast in 1999 and was transformed to an 80-minute movie. It is the story of a child who tries to prevent his parents from getting divorced after the mutual understanding between them had become impossible. He tries his best and makes use of all means to achieve his aim. He finally succeeds only when he uses a video camera and films their individual admissions of love for each other. It was directed by Mouhamad Sheikh Najeeb.
The Puzzle (Al-Lughz):
A serial of five episodes that was telecast in 1994 and won the bronze prize in the
International Cairo’s Festival of films for children in 1995. It is a story of three children in an elementary school who are fond of reading detective stories. They fall under the spell of these stories and suspect two strange persons of being criminals. They pursue these two persons and set traps for them but they finally come to the conclusion that both persons are innocent. This serial was directed by Layaly Bader.
Theatre
House of Games (The Rules Maker):
A play first published in the weekly cultural supplement of Syria’s Al-Thawra newspaper in Syria in 1997. It is about a master who gets others to play a certain game with rules he has made and continually changes so he remains the only winner. It is a play about law, tyranny, love and sacrifice. Performed at the Kharafi Festival in Kuwait in 2009.
The First Wife’s Night:
A one-act play about loneliness, jealousy, fear and human greed. Its heroine is a woman whose husband has taken a second wife. She tries to make him stay with her, revealing her humiliation, pain and jealousy.The First Wife’s Night:A one-act play about loneliness, jealousy, fear and human greed. Its heroine is a woman whose husband has taken a second wife. She tries to make him stay with her, revealing her humiliation, pain and A one-act play about loneliness, jealousy, fear and human greed. Its heroine is a woman whose husband has taken a second wife. She tries to make him stay with her, revealing her humiliation, pain and jealousy. jealousy.
The Piano:
A one-act play where an encounter takes place between a man and a woman who had been in love many years before but the woman deserted him to marry his wealthy friend. Both plays The First Wife’s Night and The Piano were first presented in one show in Aleppo in 1999
Nihad Sirees 