“Sok Ala Ekhwatak” (Shut Down Your Sisters) starring the great Actor of Masrah Masr (Egypt theatre) Ali Rabei, is an ingenuine, dishonest TV show. It readapts almost the same plot of another Egyptian series, Azmet Sokar, that hit the small screen six years ago, without making any claims about it.
“Sok Ala Ekhwatak” series tells a story of a young man named Saada (Ali Rabie) who spent most of his life in the countryside in Aswan. He was a very poor illiterate man living with his mother in a small poor furnished house.
He fell in love with a girl named Hadeya whom he later found out was going to marry someone else. On her wedding day, Hadeya was found dead with Saada’s necklace next to her and consequently, Saada was convicted of murdering his girlfriend.
This is where the adventure begins and where the retelling of another series’ plot resides.
On planning for his escape out of the village, his mother told him that his father was not actually dead and that he should go look for his rich father, a filthy rich man and father of four beautiful daughters. Shocked on hearing this, Saada packed his luggage and fled to Cairo, to where his father settled. There he found out that his father got assassinated on the hands of his rivals in the market.
Saada suddenly found himself left with tons of fortune that he had to share with his four sisters whom he had never seen before and by whom he had never been considered family. Saada throughout the series would be driven into hilarious and awkward situations as he tried to settle with his sisters and gain their trust. He would use multiple ways to approach them.
“Sok Ala Ekhwatak” is a repetition of “Azmet Sokar”, let alone the new visuals, new setting and new faces provided. There is as well a slight change in how the characters are created as opposed to the characters in “Azmet Sokar”.
Instead of Saada playing the role of a cousin living miles away from his uncle and his daughters (as in the case of Sokar), he plays the role of a brother who has long been separated from his sisters till the day he hears of his father’s murder.
This is basically a small twist in the role of the characters, yet the plot is still the same: In both TV shows, Saada and Sokar try to wittingly approach the sisters/cousins.
This is how and why I find the series a waste of time. It as well underestimates people’s mentality by selling them a no-quality story.
It only fools the people with fancy visuals; a high-quality screen that is really bright and colorful, and neatly dressed actors that are so professionally good looking on the screen.
The series is aired on MBC networks and stars Ali Rabie (Saada), Salwa Khattab (the mother) and Salah Abdallah (the father).
The up and coming actresses Sahar Al-Sayegh, Hana El Zahed, Jessie Abdo and Reem Abdel Kader play the role of Saada’s sisters in the series.
The series is directed by Wael Ehsan, written by Karim Fahmy and produced by Cedars Art Production (Sabbah Brothers) along with Sadiq Al-Sabah. Despite the pitfalls of the series, “Sok Ala Ekhwatak” has attained high viewership ratings on television as well as on YouTube in no time. The promo alone was able to get viewership ratings that reached 677,000 views in two-days’ time.
Reluctantly, the interest in providing a good story is very much endangered by the film industry’s interest in making money. “Sok Ala Ekhwatek” is an indicator that authenticity in storytelling is lacking in Egypt.
The Adventures of Tintin 