With limited capabilities.. Ramadan drama in Sudan attempts to monitor the reality of war

Source: asharq.com
Amid the ongoing conflict in Sudan for nearly two years and the internal displacement of many and the asylum of others to other countries, Sudanese artists tried to present dramatic works in the month of Ramadan this year that monitor the reality of the situation while their countrymen groan under the burden of killing, looting and displacement.

Sudanese drama witnessed a revival, represented by an increase in production, after it was liberated from the restrictions of censorship and security control, following the fall of the regime of former President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, but it declined again due to the war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, and the clashes led to the destruction of large parts of the National Theater, and most cinemas were looted and drama makers were scattered between displaced persons residing in shelters inside the country and refugees in neighboring countries.

With personal efforts and limited capabilities, those in charge of this industry tried to present artistic works, despite the difficulties involved, in an effort to embody the bitter reality that the Sudanese are living. They were severely criticized by a segment of the public and critics, due to the weakness of their artistic aspects, while another segment praised them because they were produced under harsh conditions.

The war in Sudan is approaching its second year next April, with no signs of any progress towards resolving the conflict.

Ramadan Drama and Various Issues
Among the most watched works this year is the series "Diala", which is shown on YouTube, starring Ahmed Al-Jaqr, and produced by "Al-Mazen" Artistic Production Company. The series, which was filmed entirely in Egypt, deals with the economic and social problems that most Sudanese face in a comedic format.

The series "Forced Escape" deals with the violations that the Sudanese are exposed to, from killing and attacks, in addition to the difficult economic conditions they suffer from as a result of the war. It is produced by Mosaab Omar and Khadija Muhammad, who are content creators on social media, and written and directed by Haitham Al-Amin.

Omar, known on social media as “Zoul Segheel,” told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the series documents an important period in the lives of the Sudanese people, referring to the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.” He added: "We shed light on the suffering of people from killing and displacement under the circumstances of war, in addition to reflecting the harsh way in which they flee to neighboring countries illegally," noting that the production of the series came under difficult circumstances, weak capabilities and without support from any parties. We produced the series with personal efforts, myself and Khadija America, from arranging the location, equipment and actors wages."

He stated that the production costs of the series amounted to about 20 thousand US dollars.

The effects of war
As for the actor Abu Bakr Faisal, he returned during the month of Ramadan after a two-year hiatus due to the war through the production of "Gabriel Series", and said that "this work was supposed to be a complete series, but unfortunately my presence outside Sudan and the lack of time prevented me from doing so."

Faisal explained to "Asharq" that the series includes 15 episodes that discuss the repercussions of the war and its effects, and it was filmed between Sudan and the Saudi city of Jeddah, and will be shown on the "Wicab" channel on YouTube during Ramadan.

He stressed that the war has direct effects on dramatic production, as it is a collective work that requires the presence of an integrated team in one place, noting that this was Impossible; because the makers of the work are in different places due to the war.

Critic Hussein Ali believes that the Sudanese Ramadan drama needs a lot, pointing out that individuals have developed a lot and stars such as Mahmoud Misra Al-Sarraj and Islam Al-Mubarak have emerged and left their mark in the Arab world, but the entire drama system needs a lot of work.

Ali told Asharq that works such as (Diala and Forced Escape) suffer from major technical errors, and stressed the need for drama makers who were forced by the war to seek refuge outside the country to benefit from the experiences and come up with ideas and acquire new skills and knowledge to present real drama that reflects the social reality, especially in the post-war period.

Weak capabilities and lack of tools
For his part, critic Haitham Al-Tayeb said that the majority of dramatic works "can be described as being in a circle of diligence and production attempts. There is a real lack of various work tools. We are only trying to produce Sudanese drama, and in reality it is just moving visual images here and there. The writing has many sins in terms of language, dealing with issues and dialogues, and its clear poverty in the four dimensions of the language of the scenario (clarification, description, analysis, interpretation). Almost all the works produced during this season agree on their weakness."

He added: "We lack professionalism in writing first to create the visual image, and therefore what comes after that comes out with the same weakness, because the basis of dramatic work (writing with professionalism and the complete form of creating a dramatic visual image). Have you known a dramatic image? So writing that is poor in its tools does not do that, and the majority of productions fall into that circle filled with weakness here and deficiency there."

Al-Tayeb stated in an interview with "Asharq" that the majority of dramatic works suffer from a weak language in dealing with issues, followed by a weakness in the language of dialogues themselves and their description of different things, stressing that "writing is a complete industry and has main and supporting tools and means, moving details and a clear vision, but we lacked all of that, how will it be evaluated or described other than by the phrase "efforts only", and it is still in the same efforts every year without development or a vision to draw distinctive features.. We are working on a method that necessarily means we are there, and of course this sterile method makes us fail a lot.".

He continued: "We have not yet reached the method of practicing dramatic discussion of an issue by putting it descriptively and then dealing with it procedurally, and after that its multiple details and forms of conflict itself and analyzing the situations in a moving dramatic way and not in the way we see today in our works, which is the method that resembles making a visual image for news reports here and there."

Answer to the idea of war
He pointed out that Sudanese drama did not provide the world with an answer to the idea of deadly war and what it entails, indicating that "there is no series that put the war in a complete evaluation siege and discussed it in a professional manner as an image, dimensions and vision, and the production movement could have been a diplomatic and informative value in the form of war that was in our country and put it as an image and dimensions for the world, and this is what we were aspiring to."

He said: "This can only be achieved if the hands that do this are successful professionally and intellectually, and have a firm vision in employing the dramatic image humanely and nationally, but what happened was a complete failure."

The Sudanese army has been waging a war against the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, after disagreements over plans to integrate the Rapid Support Forces into the armed forces during a political process to transition to civilian rule.

The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 12 million Sudanese, and has caused one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.