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Iraqis exhausted by daily drama find = escape on=20 new TV network
Soap operas, reality shows, music = videos to=20 relieve bad news

Borzou=20 Daragahi, Chronicle Foreign Service

Saturday, August 7,=20 2004
3D"San
=20
3D"Click=20


Baghdad -- A hardened gangster = named Ramsi=20 has crossed an underworld boss and paid for it with = his life.=20 His brother, who comes looking for him in a run- down = Baghdad=20 neighborhood, is beaten and dragged into a house by = criminals=20 ready to kill him as well.=20

"Your brother was stupid, just like you," one says=20 menacingly.=20

"Cut!" yells the director, ending another scene on = the set=20 of "Al- Hawasin" or "The End," a TV drama on the new=20 al-Sharqiya satellite network that has been attracting = Iraqi=20 viewers -- as if the real-life violence here is not = enough.=20

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis have been=20 bombarded with satellite news channels. Qatar-based=20 Al-Jazeera, Dubai-based al-Arabiya, Abu Dhabi TV and = others=20 serve up a 24-hour diet of car bombings and political = turmoil.=20 The U.S.-funded al-Hurriah and al-Iraqiya networks try = to put=20 more positive spins on the news of the day.=20

But so much current-events coverage has left a wide = gap in=20 Iraq's television menu: entertainment.=20

The Al-Sharqiya network, launched in June with an = initial=20 budget of $30 million, has eagerly sought to fill = Iraqis' need=20 for diversion with soap operas, reality shows and = music=20 videos.=20

"The Iraqi audience needs a domestic satellite = channel that=20 sympathizes with its everyday life, suffering and = misery,''=20 said Alaa al-Dahan, an al- Sharqiya executive.=20

Shows in the works include "Chaif Kheir," or = "Blessed=20 Wedding," in which the network funds a young couple = who would=20 otherwise be too poor to tie the knot. In exchange, = the couple=20 allows the show to tape their wedding, honeymoon and = domestic=20 life.=20

Another show, which could be called "Iraq's Most = Nostalgic=20 Home Videos," will show footage of Iraqis living = abroad to=20 folks in the emigres' old neighborhoods back home in = Iraq, who=20 will then reminisce about the good old days.=20

Al-Sharqiya's female newscasters are conspicuously = young,=20 beautiful bottle-blondes wearing flashy, low-cut = blouses. More=20 prevalent than footage of Mideast violence are music = videos of=20 Egyptian, Lebanese and Iraqi exile pop stars. The men = sing;=20 the women wear skimpy miniskirts and dance in the = background.=20

"We've tried to present everything that's Iraqi," = says=20 Dahan. "Some satellite channels have only broadcast = the bad=20 images of Iraq. We try to broadcast the truth of Iraq, = everything -- the bad and the good.''=20

Producing a TV show in Iraq is relatively cheap. = The 20=20 episodes of "The End" have a total budget of $100,000, = probably less than the personal trainer tab on some = comparable=20 shows in the West.=20

During a break in the filming of "The End," Iman = Kassem,a=20 sound engineer with 20 years experience, lamented that = the=20 entertainment industry collapsed in the invasion last = year,=20 which left many studios and production facilities = looted and=20 burned.=20

"I'm very happy now that I have work," she said. = "We need=20 everything in the entertainment business, because all = of our=20 equipment was destroyed.''=20

Director Ali Abdel Hossein says the fall of = Hussein's=20 government has sparked an "art uprising" in the = television=20 world, with a host of new projects getting under way. = Before,=20 he had to be constantly on guard against offending = censors,=20 even in soap operas, Hossein said. Censors once cut a = scene,=20 he said, in which a young woman told a man in his 50s = that he=20 was too old to marry her because they thought it might = offend=20 Hussein.=20

The al-Sharqiya network's chairman and chief = bankroller is=20 Saad al-Bazzaz, an Iraqi expatriate who made a name = for=20 himself in the newspaper business during the 1990s and = recently returned to become a sort of media mogul. The = Iraqi=20 edition of his London-based Azzaman newspaper has = become one=20 of postwar Iraq's best-selling dailies. With = al-Sharqiya, the=20 Dubai-based businessman is taking aim at Iraq's = airwaves.=20

Back at the filming of "The End" -- this time in = front of=20 the Baghdad Museum -- the director, Hossein, calls = "cue," the=20 Iraqi equivalent of "action," and cameras roll.=20

An Iraqi mother, draped in an all-covering black = chador,=20 pleads with her son not to loot the Baghdad museum, to = return=20 the priceless artifacts he has already stolen. He = explains --=20 somewhat melodramatically -- that he would like to do = the=20 right thing, but circumstances in the new Iraq won't = let him=20 go straight.=20

"Iraq has changed," he explains.

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