The best, the deepest, the truest, the boldest, the saddest and the most terrifying, all these descriptions were given by the followers of the series "The Seventh Harsha" to the work that has succeeded since the beginning of the Ramadan until now in being the most circulated and controversial on social media platforms.
As the work drew to a close within days, we searched for the secret of the audience's fascination with what they see in the work of different groups, ages and social situations.
Shelf life 7 years
"The Seventh Harsha" directed by Karim El-Shennawy, and written by a narration workshop under the supervision of Mariam Naoum and starring Amina Khalil, Ali Qassem, Mohamed Shaheen and Asma Galal in partnership with Ahmed Kamal, Hanan Suleiman and Aida Riad.
As soon as the series was announced, the audience wondered about the meaning of the unconventional name, which turned out to refer to what is known in English as (The seven-year itch) in relation to the changes that occur in marriage after 7 years, and their impact on the stability and continuity of the relationship, which was presented by the makers of the series by addressing the relationships of marital heroes, and their daily conflicts.
Narration Workshop
The first protagonist of the work is "Narrative Workshop" by Mariam Naoum and Dina Negm, who accustomed us to presenting rich and inspiring works, far from superficial and naïve, and whose works know how to put relationships under a magnifying glass that reflects nothing but the truth.
Not only romantic relationships, but also the relationships of parents and children, as if the writers of the workshop had sharp scalpels to anatomy the man, woman and family with the utmost sensitivity and honesty, which made the name of Maryam Naoum and the narration workshop on any work enough to mobilize a wide segment of viewers before the start of the show and bet on it in advance.
Shenawi skill
The next unknown soldier is director Karim El Shenawy, who, despite his young age, has succeeded year after year in presenting successful works worthy of re-viewing while ensuring that the enjoyment will be resumed, including "Khali Balak Min Zizi", "Cain", and "Ahd Al-Dam".
They are series, despite their plots, all characterized by giving the protagonists the benefit of doubt, and trying to expose their own motives and human weaknesses that push them to make mistakes.
Perhaps the most important feature of El-Shennawy is that he has tools that enable him to portray the most accurate Khaljat of the human soul, and to manage the stars, which pushes them to express their emotions with all their senses from the look of an eye and the trembling of a voice and gestures, so everyone appears on the screen to the extent that viewers are involved with them between the lines of stories and the complexities of life.
For greater realism, Shenawy relies on other tools, including the camera's quiet, infelt-feeling motion, which gives the audience the impression as if he were snooping on the heroes from a magic eye. In addition to his interest in other artistic elements, such as colors, lighting, décor, and the soundtrack in which Khaled Kammar created, and finally the smart and varied songs that were used to intensify the emotional state at the end of each episode.
Amazing realism
Did the "seventh harsha" scare young people from getting married and the couples themselves afraid of each other? Given the extreme identification with the work and the problems facing the protagonists, it can be argued that the work may have caused panic for spectators who are not used to getting so close to relationships.
The work was full of bilateral confrontations from one episode to another, the most famous of which appeared in the ninth episode between "Adam" (Mohammed Shaheen) and "Nadine" (Amina Khalil), during which they discussed how they see each other with the utmost clarity and cruelty. Shedding light on all the old accumulations between them, revealing the causes of anger and unhappiness, which they used to disavow or overlook for fear of consequences, a huge explosion destroyed the fragile glass of their relationship, because even when they decided to confront them, they did so without giving up the masks they use to protect themselves from the evils of the world.
It looked like a match, which they both wanted to win, forgetting that they were together in the same team, that the success of relationships was based on partnership, access was a partnership, error was a partnership, and no one party alone caused the gain or loss.
Back to Original
One of the most important features of the work is that it does not present the relationships between the protagonists in isolation from their past or their past traumas and complex family relationships, as they are all mere human beings with weaknesses, strengths and painful scars of the past.
This made the public able to look at both sides of the relationship with a fair balance, which does not necessarily stand with one party without the other, but sees the two as equally right and wrong.
The character of Nadine, for example, is not a hysterical or ungrateful woman, but rather a victim of her past, which witnessed continuous altercations between her father and her mother, who has always expressed her sense of oppression and abandonment of herself and her dreams in order to marry a man who does not appreciate the size of her sacrifices, which was clearly reflected on Nadine and a boy who has fears that she will meet the same fate as her mother, and therefore dealt with her husband with excessive criticism to protect herself.
But at the same time, she thought that marrying her lover would save her from all these pains, and in front of the ceiling of her high expectations, and then going through the experience of motherhood for twins and bearing heavy and heavy responsibilities in light of the husband's preoccupation with trying to secure a decent life for the family, her dreams were soon broken on the rocks of reality and pressures that increased her sense of fear and insecurity. She has to express her anger with intensiveness and emotion from time to time, followed by shelter behind walls of silence that isolate not only evils from her but also from her partner, Adam, the practical man who has been forced by life to spin in a wheel of work he does not like in order to earn enough income.
Although he is ambitious and loving to his wife, he suffers - like many other men - from double standards, so he accepts some behaviors that he rejects from his wife, or does not appreciate her giving to the relationship and accuses her of constant criticism and lack of appreciation, and then does the same. However, he often tries and even succeeds in containing his wife, without talking about the crisis itself, so things remain on hold waiting for the first sign of disagreement to explode in the couple's face.
Dark horse
In the presence of outstanding directing, highly literal writing and rich in everyday details of real life behind closed doors, the acting performance completes the success trilogy.
Karim El-Shenawy knew how to choose his stars, led by Amina Khalil, with whom he collaborated in his previous Ramadan experiences, as well as Ali Qassem and Asma Jalal, in addition to the real dark horse this year, Mohamed Shaheen, in his best artistic roles ever, where he presented the character calmly and poise without exaggeration or rigidity, and succeeded in expressing all her emotions between sadness, anger and heartbreak, because Karim El-Shenawy's men are not afraid to cry.
In second place comes Ali Kassem, who we have seen represented in Arabic, English and French with the same fluidity and spontaneity, presenting a character that stands completely on the edge, between being loved or hated by the audience, but playing it with a very sensitive and mature scale.
Several steps behind Shaheen and Qassem, Amina Khalil and Asma Jalal fall, not necessarily because of poor performance, but because the former plays an emotional and sharp character, while the latter is a closed personality due to her family's abandonment, which made the public morally separate from them and lose its sympathy for them.