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...