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July 03, 2004
Iraqis tune in to everyday tale of life under occupation - Financial Times
A television soap drawing its themes from daily reality in Iraq is proving a big draw, reports James Drummond
Our hero Fawzi is trying to find a replacement for a telephone switchboard stolen in the aftermath of the US invasion from the government office where he works.
But the well-meaning if somewhat innocent telephone exchange operator, who is the only person to do any work in his unnamed ministry, is himself accused of the theft.
Meanwhile, Fawzi is facing challenges on another front from Abu Taghrid, a trader in dodgy meat, who is trying to take Fatin, Fawzi's intended, as his second wife.
This is the plotline of Al-Hub wa'l-Harb - "Love and War" - the first big domestic drama series to be shown on Iraqi television since the war last year. It is proving hugely popular.
At 3.15 every weekday afternoon Iraqis gather round television sets to catch up with the latest twists in the domestic saga of how Fawzi battles the evil meat trader and finds happiness.
With the exception of the European soccer championship, shown late at night in Iraq, and one-off events like Thursday's trial of Saddam Hussein and his Ba'athist cohorts, Love and War is the most popular show in town.
Its stars, including Qassam al-Mallak, who plays Fawzi, and Bahjat al-Jabouri, who plays Abu Taghrid, are familiar to Iraqis from Ba'athist days. The series is a comedy drama but it is not pure escapism. The themes reveal the everyday preoccupations of Iraqis over the last year and a half: crime, corruption, lack of electricity and indolent civil servants.
Ali Zain al-Abdin, the drama's writer, worked as a censor under the old regime. A tall cheerful man from the southern town of Samawa, Mr Zain al-Abdin is quietly enjoying his new-found freedom but admits to exercising self-censorship.
"There are no boundaries now. But I am my own censor. I know the boundaries of what is acceptable to Iraqis," he says.
There have been, so far, no direct roles for Americans in Love and War, but they are mentioned.
One of the main jokes revolves around Fawzi's best friend, Ahmed, who is very short. He is courting a neighbour, Lubna, but in doing so is pretending he is six feet tall. He stands on a box to flirt with her across a garden wall. She cannot see the box.
But Ahmed is a staunch friend to Fawzi. And, when faced with a man with a bundle of dollars who claims that he is working as a translator for the Americans, he says derisively that he "will never work for the occupiers".
Mr Zain al-Abdin denies that he is avoiding painful and potentially dangerous issues.
"How do you deal with occupation? No one wants to be occupied. We will not write about it now - maybe we will write about it in 10 years. The Americans are not writing about September 11 yet," he says.
Ala al-Dahhan, an executive with Sharqiya TV, which is broadcasting Love and War, points out that there is already a competitive market in hard-hitting news in Iraq provided by the pan-Arab satellite news channels. There is little point in trying to replicate that, he says.
"We are not in the business of upsetting anyone. What Iraqis want is Iraqi drama," he says.
Hassan Dixon, who contributed the script of Hub wa'l Harb, has also written La Saira wa la Daira, a sketch show.
It shows a now familiar mix of bumbling security guards, wealthy squatters, mobile phone scams, and civil servants who should be at work running flea markets.
In this Mr Dixon is extending the formats of television in Ba'athist Iraq.
Uday Hussein, Saddam's psychopathic son, liked to portray himself as a champion of the common man. His Shabab (Youth) television station would carry vaguely satirical programming. It stretched as far as criticising rubbish building up in the streets but never touched on political issues or senior individuals, Mr Dixon says.
"I write from life from what I see. I write what I want. There are no red lines but sometimes the producer chooses the subject or he doesn't like an idea."
He pauses and then says he would not write about religious issues or criticise clerical leaders.
Mr Zain al-Abdin agrees but says that Sunni Wahhabis and Shia clerics are not known for their interest or ability in writing television comedies.
"I am like Iyad Allawi," he says, referring to the new Iraqi prime minister. "I like to drink arak."
Posted by Vanessa Hetherington on July 3, 2004 at 04:26 PM in Native media, Television shows | Permalink
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