Promotional poster for the Egyptian series “Highest Viewing Rate” (Al Jazeera)
The trial of the “Tik Tok” girls occupied the Egyptian street in 2022, which prompted director Yasmine Ahmed Kamel to stop addressing the cases, and to focus in the series “Highest Viewing Rate” on societal reasons deeper than the desire for fame among the girls who fell victim to it.
Author Samar Taher presented details of the life of a segment of society that lives in dire economic conditions and a social divide in values, forcing each individual to live two versions of life, one openly, and the other hidden in fear or shame.
The director of “Highest Viewing Rate” formed a team of actors that did not include a single star, and despite this, the series became the star of Egyptian drama in terms of its viewership and artistic excellence.
The story revolves around Shaima (Salma Abu Deif), a girl who comes from a simple family suffering from poverty. She and her sister try to overcome this life through social networking sites, and in their journey they face the realities of life.
There is a father and mother who are being buffeted by the combined winds of circumstances and economic injustice, and their humanity is mercilessly insulted. There is no stable work, no guarantee for the next meal, and no dignity in light of the humiliation they both face from employers and owners of money.
As for the eldest daughter, Amal (Farah Youssef), she marries - unfortunately for her - a person who is close to being a blackmailing criminal (Islam Ibrahim), who tries to translate everything that surrounds him into money effortlessly, and circumstances have crushed him like his predecessors, but they brought out the worst in him.
As for the two heroes of the work and its focus, they are Shaima and Nesma (Laila Ahmed Zaher), who belong to a generation whose awareness is opened to “digital,” “online,” and “Tik Tok,” and as a result of the harsh feeling of deprivation, they rush towards filming clips, hoping for the financial return from them.
Director Yasmine Ahmed Kamel presented a rare experience in photographing the simple Egyptian popular neighborhood. The image expressed an intimacy that envelops people and buildings despite the difficult circumstances for everyone. The result was scenes characterized by beauty that demonstrate love and respect for the neighborhood, in contrast to cinematic and television experiences over the past twenty years, which The neighborhood was presented as a human museum containing the disfigured, decorated with dark colors, visual chaos, bloody fights and white weapons.
Shaima is everyone's prey
It shows the reality of a society confused between a system of values that collapses under the weight of social and economic conditions with the help of technology, and it appears weak in the face of the attack of the future without preparing for it. The series picked up the thread of weakness, to dissect one of its manifestations, which is the phenomenon of “trend” obsession and the false society that was formed to take advantage of it. But he made a painful analysis of the reasons why the phenomenon was able, widespread, and easy to control an economically fragile society.
The scenario gradually builds the image of Shaima, the neglected girl in her family, who does not have the minimum level of self-confidence, while her sister Nesma is the brightest and most beautiful.
The situation changes within a few weeks, and Shaima becomes a star on social networking sites, and she has money as a result, and she turns into a target for those around her in an ugly “post-modern” form. Her sister’s boyfriend aspires to marry her, given her money and stardom, her older sister’s husband is trying to blackmail her, and the world of “TikTokers” with everyone in it is trying to exploit her, according to what each of them sees in her.
Shaima seemed as if she were prey, with predatory animals gathered around her, devouring whatever she wanted from her living corpse. Even her sister turned into a hateful opponent, wanting to possess all the fame and money her sister had acquired.
Salma Abu Deif gave a dynamic performance in the few performances that the work contained, and with the exception of the dance of the main song, all of her movements resembled the movements of a person motivated to move by pain, not joy.
Building characters and different performances
The character building in “Highest Viewing Rate” was complete, and the promising screenwriter, Samar Taher, succeeded in transforming the ideas of the work into flesh-and-blood characters. With her extreme sincerity, the viewer almost forgets the names of her actors.
With the exception of minor shortcomings, Taher achieved the most difficult equation in Arab drama, which always fails in the character building test, arriving amputated, or having her behavior contradictory to her history, or fragmented from a different context.
Perhaps the clear reason for this cohesion in construction is that the work is inspired by a true story that contains characters who played a role in real life, and then were transferred to the drama with solid supports.
The most prominent character in terms of structure is the mother Hamdia, whose role was embodied by actress Intisar with ability, special sensitivity, and tremendous maternal energy. As for the father, he was embodied by the veteran actor Mohamed Mahmoud in one of the roles that will be recorded in his history as a shining mark.
The parents formed the features of a family that was brought down by economic transformations to a lower segment, but it clings to its goals, values, and religiosity, and despite making mistakes, its permanent refuge is prayer and repentance, which gives each of them strength and the ability to withstand, which appeared more clearly in “The Mother” with a performance of victory. Who embodied strength, a hidden sarcasm of her concerns, and a roughness she gained from the harsh circumstances.
The series presented a living example of artistic honesty that leads its creator directly to the heart of the viewer, by approaching his concerns, humility in the face of his pain, and deep research into the causes of his weakness, in addition to the amazing ability to capture details and deep experience with his subject.
The “highest viewing rate” is the most prominent series in Ramadan 2024. It is not just a call to attention to our sons and daughters and the need to monitor their relationship with the little monster with the screen, which opens the windows of Satan, but it is a cry to pay attention to a social segment whose limbs are being torn apart and whose corpse is mutilated while it is still alive. The segment of parents, who bear what the mountains cannot bear.
Source: Al Jazeera