The Libyan series “Cousin Daughters” (Al Jazeera)
During the current month of Ramadan, the first Libyan series was shown on an Arab electronic platform, competing with “Cousin’s Daughters” with multiple Arab series, and taking Libyan television drama from the local sphere to the Arab arena.
This enhances the diversity of works presented to the Arab viewer on the one hand, and opens the door for this drama to be read and evaluated with different eyes, leading to its future development.
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“The Cousins” series, directed by Osama Rizk and written by Siraj Al-Huwaidi, starring Hind Al-Arfieh, Aya Shaw, Muhammad bin Nasser, and Saad Al-Mahdi, and cooperation by both the director and author in several Libyan series, the most famous of which are “Al-Saraya” with its two parts and “Ghasak.”
Melodrama
“Cousin’s Daughters” belongs to the social drama that leans towards realism, as it presents the story of a middle-class Libyan family. The father (Jamal Saleh Freikh) is a retired employee after the death of his wife and his suffering from several health problems.
The father lives with the daughter of an outstanding university student named “Khuloud” (Aya Shaw), the son of a high school student, “Naji” (Ahmed Ammar), and his niece, “Khuloud” (Hind Al-Arfieh), who has lived with them since her childhood after her father died, her mother left her, got married, and traveled to Turkey.
The series “Cousins” belongs to the social drama that tends towards realism (IMDP)
Family life seems stable, but it is the stability of a volcano about to explode. While the two girls act as if they were sisters, this does not prevent strong differences between their personalities.
Afaf only dreams of achieving university excellence and obtaining a scholarship to complete her education abroad, while Kholoud keeps in mind that achieving her dreams can only come through a wealthy husband, so she leaves her fiancé, her university colleague, and devotes herself to searching for this husband.
While the series focuses - as is clear from its title - on the relationship between “Khuloud” and “Afaf”, the conflict is generated through 3 sub-characters, the first of which is “Ahmed” (Mohamed Bin Nasser), the advisor to the corrupt minister, who meets “Afaf” by chance in the pharmacy where she works. And he likes it.
When he goes to meet her again, he finds “Khuloud” instead, who sees his luxurious car and finds in him the ideal husband to fulfill her hopes. She tells him one lie after another to alienate him from “Afaf,” and then she persuades him until he actually marries her.
While "Afaf", a young man recently released from prison, admires "Ashraf" (Saeed Al Mahdi), whom she rejects at first until the third sub-character, represented by her brother "Naji", who joins a military militia, tempts him to become addicted to drugs, so he commits a crime that changes his life and the life of... His sister, and pushes her to agree to marry “Ashraf” as her last resort from loneliness.
The “Cousin Daughters” series adhered to realism to a large extent, conveying the life of the ordinary Libyan street, its joys and sorrows, and the lives of middle-class girls with their various personalities, whether ambitious, seeking wealth, or even marriage, like the two heroines’ friends.
However, this realism was absent in the final episodes of the series, which tended to melodrama and resorting to coincidences that reveal to the heroine the treachery of those around her, and she takes many decisive decisions in the final moments of the final episode to close all open dramatic lines.
Substories
The series “Cousins” places its two heroines at the center of the plot. Love mixed with jealousy and envy between relatives is a successful recipe that has been presented in many Arab series before. The nationalities of the two heroines can be replaced, and we will find the story very similar, but what gives the work its special flavor is the sub-lines. Which presents the spirit of Libyan society that the Arab viewer is eager to explore.
Perhaps the most prominent of these sub-stories is the corrupt minister who controls the lives of dozens of employees as if they were his slaves, and wreaks havoc on the country’s turbulent economy with no real deterrent other than a group of honorable employees who collect documents confirming his crimes, and thus his assistant “Ahmed” falls with him.
The “Cousin Daughters” series is a sophisticated television drama, whose makers have a conscious artistic vision (social networking sites)
On the other hand, the character of “Naji,” Afaf’s younger brother, presents a different point of view on militia youth. The virtuous teenager and righteous son is attracted by a corrupt friend who initially introduces him to drugs.
From drugs to military training, which suggests to him that he has prestige that nothing can break, and feeds his masculine illusions about himself, which make him disobey his father’s wishes and rebel against him. He thinks that he is a member of a squad affiliated with the Ministry of Interior before he discovers that he is part of a criminal cell.
Another side story that is actually more interesting than the main story is found in the character of “Ashraf”, who has just come out of prison. The dialogue later reveals that he was arrested after one of his neighbors accused him of harassing her. The residents of the street completely reject “Ashraf”, so no one talks to him or talks to him. Peace be upon him, and he is dismissed from his job.
He remains in this situation until his marriage to “Afaf,” who represents the adornment of the girls in the area, and he gains respect for his relationship with her, which explains the nature of society’s dealing with an exciting issue such as the harassment of girls, which the neighbors did not consider a normal event that could be easily accepted or passed on.
Therefore, the subplots represent greater value for the Arab viewer looking for a closer view of Libyan society. Even simple scenes such as the popular wedding of “Ashraf” and “Afaf” and the songs and chants become revealing of a different culture, as despite their geographical proximity to many Arab countries, they are still exotic and worth discovering. .
Perhaps the series' flaw is its tendency towards outdated editing methods, such as blacking out the screen at the end of scenes, or focusing on the faces of the heroines and heroes to clarify their feelings with the soundtrack, and the frequent use of the latter in long scenes without dialogue, so it seems filler.
The most important point is that the “Cousin Daughters” series reveals a sophisticated Libyan television drama, whose makers have an artistic vision and conscious use of the television medium. In general, the series represents a traditional but entertaining work during its 14 episodes. It also contains more than one twist in the plot and an exciting surprise that changes the course of events.
Source: Al Jazeera