After last Ramadan's successful television series Zat — itself a spinoff of the 2009 collaboration on the film Wahed Sefr (One/Zero) — the female troika strikes again: actress Nelly Karim, screenwriter Mariam Naoum (this time working with Hala Al-Zaghandi) and director Kamla Abu-Zekri. Halfway through its duration, their Ramadan TV contribution this year, Segn Al-Nesa (Women's Prison) — based on the late Fathiya Al-Assal's play of the same name — is already proving even more successful than Zat. Karim, who also features in Saraya Abdin this year, is reaching new levels of acting proficiency. As Ghalia, Karim leaves her job as a seamstress to take over her late mother's job as a guard at Al-Qanater Prison for Women in order to keep the apartment in which they have lived. The night Ghalia's mother dies, her neighbour and best friend Nawwara (Reham Haggag), the daughter of her mother's coworker Ihsan (Salwa Othman) finds out about Ghalia's relationship with the manipulative microbus driver Saber (Ahmed Dawoud), against whom she has already warned her. At the prison, while Ihasn takes her under her wing, Ghalia discovers a rich, harsh and convincing world full of stories: Aziza (Salwa Khattab), the chief of the prisoners and a truly powerful character; Zenat (Nessrin Amin), the prostitute turned beautician; the English-speaking, stuck-up cocaine dealer serving time in place of her son (Noha Al-Amrousi); and the Iraqi prisoner (Lana Mushtaq). Already Saber is asking Ghalia for money to buy a new microbus, promising her marriage. In the scenes in which they quarrel, Karim's performance is ingenious as she portrays a true working-class woman with all the harshness and obscenity of someone from that background. Uncertain though she is, Ghalia gives Saber everything she has. A parallel storyline involves Dalal (Dorra), a clothes shop attendant whose aunt Insaf (Hanan Youssef) and cousins work as prostitutes and are constantly persuading her to join forces — until she gives in. When she accompanies them to the bar where they entertain and pick up clients, Dalal falls in love with the bartender, and while they plan to get married he insists that she should give up her job of entertaining the customers. Dalal agrees, and does, except that her cousins persuade her to attend a private party at her aunt's house and on that evening the police raids the apartment and they all end up in Al-Qanater Prison. Yet another poignant character is Hayah (Donia Maher), Ghalia's replacement at the clothes factory owned by Hamdi (Diaa Al-Merghani). A thin woman in hijab with two small children, she is particularly susceptible to disturbing news, throwing out the children's fruit while they wait for it when she comes across a news item about the danger of pesticides, for example. Saber buys the microbus but he also marries the car dealer's daughter, the girl eventually dies giving birth and he returns to Ghalia expressing regret. After repeated refusals and despite Nawwara's strong objections she eventually agrees to marry him. He fritters away Ghalia's money rather than paying the microbus installments and his son's alimony. The confrontation happens when his father in law arrives at the house to demand the installments. In the course of the fight the couple is having, Saber draws a knife to use against Ghalia, who is now pregnant, but inadvertently hits his father in law in the neck, killing him and leaving Ghalia in shock on the floor. Saber runs, encountering Nawwara at the door. Karim gives a brilliant performance during the investigation of the man's death, in the course of which Nawwara testifies against Ghalia: she has been in a relationship with Saber all along... *** SHAMS MEANS SUN: This Ramadan Laila Elwi stars in Shams, her second collaboration with director Khaled Al-Hagar, with whom she presented Farah Laila last year. The series also stars Gamil Rateb as Shams's father Nour and Hani Adel as the cousin to whom she is introduced only after her father's death. Like last year's series, Shams presents neither a new theme nor a fresh performance. Elwi plays the only daughter of a tycoon businessman whose assets and money are seized on his death, leaving his daughter newly destitute. Elwi's performance is somewhat shaky, especially in the early episodes — during those tedious scenes in which Al-Hagar seems to do nothing but showcase the luxury in which she lives. Nor is her OCD very convincing, with Elwi touching her fingers one by one and very lightly banging her head against the wall. According to screenwriter Alaa Hassan, who took the time to speak about his debut, “Most scripts are altered after they are written, with details added and others removed. A novel is different from a script. A script can take alteration because it involves the director, the cinematographer and the actors. Starting on this series in March was extremely late, which led to major changes that were agreed on prior to shooting with the director and the cast of the series, like making it so that Shams has OCD. This was altered within the drama in a relatively satisfying way. But other changes were made and I wasn't informed of them, because there was no time to attend the filming though in my view the screenwriter's presence at the location is quite important, so that he can handle any changes in a delicate way. Alterations made by the actors can be peculiar and irritating. Someone like the renowned veteran actor Gamil Rateb, with all this acting history behind him — he didn't change a word of his script, which proves his proficiency and his awareness of the importance of abiding by what's written down,” Hassan trails off “As a screenwriting student in the last year at the Film Institute,” he eventually adds, “unlike a director, say, you cannot be an assistant. You can be an assistant director for years until you make your own film, but in the field of script writing, either you're writing your own script or not. This year we have two of our institute graduates who are very successful with TV series: Abdel-Rehim Kamal and Mariam Naoum.” Of course, he concedes, to keep the audience watching 30 episodes is challenge. “I think the final scene of every episode is the key to make the audience watch the next episode of the series, but some of my final scenes of the episodes were changed by Al-Haggar. Still, Shams was an opportunity for me to work with a big star like Laila Elwi...”
