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MENA’S One of the biggest MENA production houses has remained resilient in the face of the lockdown that crippled the production industry worldwide last year. Cedars Art Production (Sabbah Brothers) CEO Sadek Sabbah tells Vijaya Cherian how the company has continuously adapted since the early 50s, and discusses its Ramadan 2021 drama rollout Cedars Art Production (CAP) has released five 30-episode Ramadan productions this year, four of which will feature exclusively on MBC platforms, with its SVOD service Shahid VIP enjoying first window status in some cases: Moroccan series Slamat Abu Al Banat and Wlad El Amm, Egyptian productions Molook Al Gadaana and Lahm Ghazal, and a Levant series titled 2020. The latter, starring Nadine Nassib Njeim, will launch exclusively on MBC in the GCC, on MTV in Lebanon, on Ro’ya TV in Jordan and on ART in Egypt. Although CAP usually produces around 14 TV series and a couple of movies a year, five is considered remarkable in an ecosystem that is still under partial lockdown and riddled by other recent regional challenges. Heading the family-owned business started by his grandfather in 1954 is Sadek Sabbah, who joined the entity in 1978 and has run the show since 1981, along with his brother and partner Ali Sabbah and the new Sabbah generation. Since the Sabbah brothers took over, Cedars Art Production has become a strong contender in the Arabic production market and in recent years has worked with the likes of Banijay, The Walt Disney Company, Netflix and Shahid. But the production house’s forte lies in creating Arabic productions and developing stories that cater to each of the Arab markets. It all began with his grandfather, who “loved filmmaking and the theatrical aspect of the business but wanted to expand”, Sabbah says. “He sent one of his sons to Egypt for inspiration and they ended up investing in Egyptian cinemas first, and later in Lebanese cinema. My uncle was dubbed the King of Egyptian Cinema.” “I came into the business in 1978 during the video
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cassette era. My brother is the CFO, while I oversee the rest of the business; we have 125 people working in the group. Our children are mostly producers – we have four producers in the company. One for the Egyptian part, two working to serve the pan-Arab market and one focusing on the Moroccan area. Today we are innovating with our productions, serials, TV game shows, animation, theatrical plays adapted for TV and so on.” Cedar Art Productions made headlines in 2018 when its hit Al Hayba was picked up by Netflix. CAP also produced the Lebanese series Dollar as another original for Netflix, which released it in August 2019. More recently, the production house collaborated with The Walt Disney Company – a first – to produce Sukkar Ziada, the Egyptian adaptation of American show Golden Girls. Also on the cards is Anbar12 – Untold Stories behind the Beirut Port Explosion. Asked how it feels to work with international companies, Sabbah sums it up in one word – “complicated”. “There are a lot more limitations and protocol to follow with international productions, but fortunately the restrictions were a lot less with Golden Girls, because it is a relatively older format. The idea was to bring back two Arabic divas from Egyptian cinema to the smaller screen. The challenge in this specific case was that we were working with older celebrities, which meant we could only work a few hours a day.” CAP had the original 13-season Golden Girls run condensed into a 30-episode package. A new set was created in Lebanon for the purpose, with Arabic flavour and culture integrated into the series. The team also toned down the raciness, making it more palatable to an Arab audience. Asked why CAP was chosen over other production houses,
