Will screenwriters boost Egypt's literary scene?
Egyptian screenwriters are revisiting the practice of turning novels into films and TV series — and perhaps reviving an interest in literature in the process.
In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, the literary works of leading Egyptian authors brought glory to the big screen when their novels were made into films. This year, the Egyptian novel took to the small screen when Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz’s "Afrah al-Qubbah" ("Wedding Song") was made into a TV series broadcast during Ramadan.
Similar literary works are expected to be broadcast on TV in the next few years, as Egyptian production company El Adl Group announced Sept. 13 that it has finished the main set for the TV series "Wahat al-Ghurub" ("The Sunset Oasis"), which is based on Bahaa Tahir’s novel of the same name. The series is to be filmed at the Siwa Oasis by the end of October or the beginning of November, to be broadcast during Ramadan in 2017.
Writers and producers recently revived the idea of turning widely read and best-selling novels into screenplays. This phenomenon was evidently embraced when scriptwriter Wahid Hamid turned Alaa al-Aswani’s best-selling "The Yacoubian Building" into a 2006 film directed by a young Marwan Hamid. The story is about an old apartment building in downtown Cairo occupied by Egyptians representing different economic, social and cultural castes. The film and the novel alike depict the suffering and transformation of every social caste in Egypt since the movement of July 23, 1952, until 2005, a period which included the overthrow of the monarchy and political parties and the military taking the reins of power.
Since "The Yacoubian Building," the idea of turning novels into screenplays has become more common. For instance, "The Blue Elephant," "Hepta: The Last Lecture" and "The Price" are films adapted from novels written respectively by novelists Ahmad Murad, Muhammad Sadiq and Amal Afifi. However, critic Mahmoud Abd al-Shakur told Al-Monitor that "Wedding Song" marks a turning point in “the relationship between the novel and the screenplay.”
