hit the small screen in a new made-for-television drama which, writes Rania Khallaf, at least attempts to locate the serial killers' story within its social and historical context With so many new, or apparently new, stories and characters prowling across our Ramadan TV screens there is special pleasure to be had in watching a new adaptation of an old, apparently well-worn story. It is a feeling that is heightened when the story in question -- as with this Ramadan's serial Raya wa Sekina () -- is based on fact. With the assistance of their husbands the two serial killers of the title perpetrated a horrifying series of crimes against the backdrop of the 1919 revolution, beginning their murderous careers in Alexandria in November 1919 and continuing for a year. Finally arrested, they were tried and sentenced to death in 1921. are among that select group of criminals whose stories have entered the realm of folklore. Having realised that the proceeds from the illicit brothel they had run had been largely squandered on drink and paying for protection, at the instigation of one Abdel-Razeq, who had acted as a guard at the brothel, they hatched the scheme that would result in the murder of about 17 women who, enticed to the brothel, were killed, stripped of their jewellery, and then buried in the basement of the building. Or so the story goes. came to Alexandria from Egypt's impoverished south in search of a better life. Having found a room in which to live they promptly turned it into a café with Sekina, the younger and better looking, working as a belly- dancer while Raya, unattractive and evil- tempered, managed the business with her husband Hassab Allah, who collected money and acted as a bouncer-come-enforcer. The business did not thrive -- Alexandria was in the grip of the post-WWI depression -- and they soon decided it would be far more lucrative to turn the café into a brothel. The story has attracted the attention of a number of artists. In 1953 it was adapted for the screen though the resulting film, Raya wa Sekina, scripted by Naguib Mahfouz, directed by Salah Abu Seif, focussed on the police officer leading the investigation into the murders while the two title characters appeared only fleetingly. Since 1953 the two have reappeared at regular intervals, most famously, perhaps, in the 1988 play starring comedian Soheir El-Babli and the popular singer Shadia. The portrayal of the killers this time was sympathetic, with the play allowing space for the audience to sympathise with them. It also contained a great deal of embroidery, including the killing of their cruel mother-in-law, an incident which has no basis in fact. So what is different about 's latest outing? The current show pays far greater attention to the social and psychological motives which led the two sisters into their life of crime, with the scriptwriter perhaps suggesting that it is impossible to divorce such evil acts from the background of unemployment and abject poverty against which they were perpetrated. "Faced with such hardship there is no halal or haram, it is all mixed up," murmurs Abdel-Aal, Sekina's husband, who repeatedly refused to participate in the criminal acts. Directed by Gamal Abdel-Hamid, and scripted by Mustafa Muharam, the serial is based on the 600-page Regal Raya wa Sekina: Sira Siyasiya Wa Igtimaiya (Men behind : A Political and Social Biography), by Salah Eissa, editor of the cultural weekly Al-Qahira. The book provides the reader with a social, psychological and political analysis of the atmosphere then prevailing in Egypt. "The idea of the book dates back to 1971. While browsing through files at the Political and Criminal Cases Museum in Abbasiya those relating to attracted my attention," Eissa says. "When I read more of the file I realised that the popular view of was completely false. I photocopied all the documents related to the investigation into the case and ended up with more than 3,000 pages." Not that the television series plays entirely true to fact. Fearing that the broadcast authorities would reject their treatment the series skirts around the fact that prostitution was, at the time, licensed: rather than running a brothel the two sisters are depicted, instead, as proprietors of a drug den where women come to entertain customers. Despite the concession Egyptian television refused to screen the series during Ramadan because "it contains obscene scenes". So the show is being screened on MBC satellite channel. Raya is played by Abla Kamel, Sekina by Somaya El-Khashab. Raya's husband, Hassab Allah, played by Sami El-Adl, is a dullard, and his dependence on his wife's wits and money is a cause of conflict between him and Sekina. Interestingly, in this version the four men -- including Hassab Allah and Abdel-Aal, Sekina's new husband, played by Riyad El-Kholi -- who committed the crimes had previously been volunteers in the so- called peasant army, comprised of a million of Egyptian peasants forced to join the back lines of the allied forces. "Apparently their participation in the war resulted in their subsequent heartlessness about killing women," Eissa explains. "When they returned from war they once again faced poverty and this provided them with a sufficient excuse to commit their crimes." The book reveals that the two sisters played a relatively marginal role in the actual murders, a point highlighted when, in episode number 15, the four unemployed men sit together drinking alcohol and smoking hashish and concocting their murderous, money-making scheme. Khadra, one of the women who works with them, is selected as their first victim. Abdel-Aal initially objects to the plan, though he eventually acquiesces because they "do not have a penny left". The mounting conflict between , who drinks away her money, is one of the cornerstones of the drama. Sekina loves her husband while Raya maintains her relationship with her unemployed womanising husband simply because "he is better than nothing". The script is keen to differentiate between two sisters who, in the popular imagination, have come to be regarded as two sides of a single coin. It is Raya who sets out to convince an initially reluctant Sekina of the scheme. "Sekina," Eissa believes, "was more of a coward than her sister. Sekina had always objected to the killing of women, especially those who were Raya's close friends. She wanted a secure life. With this in mind, the others murdered a number of victims behind her back. In the end were victims of men who in their turn were victims of unemployment and poverty." The series exposes the corruption of the police, while also shedding light on jobs that were associated with licensed prostitution, the bodyguards and the dalala, a woman who sells clothes to female customers in their homes. Sadly, less attention to detail is evinced in evoking the atmosphere of Alexandria at the time, with scant attention paid to the political upheavals of those years. And watching the daily episodes the viewer is likely to wonder where the city's other inhabitants are. Where and when does this serial take place? Perhaps the production could not afford the extras necessary to populate the streets and cafés of 1920s Alexandria. References to the impact of WWI on Egypt and the epidemic diseases that afflicted great swathes of the population are similarly absent, while Sekina's beautiful and colourful galabiyas fly in the face of the abject poverty in which the two sisters lived. Eissa agrees: "The café at which most incidents take place is almost empty, and one sees only a narrow section of the place. The location was very poorly decorated, and there is no portrayal of the real Alexandria of the 1920s." Few among the audience, though, will object to the compassionate lyrics of Ahmed Fouad Negm and Ammar El-Sherie's magnificent music.
