Beirut city gets its celebrity serial killer, through a crew of four misfits determined to create the Arab World’s first killer series.

Rabih TV

STATUS: Completed
RUNNING TIME: 5 Eps x 20 Min
GENRE: Dark Comedy, Social Drama
DIRECTOR: Mohamed A. Berro

Rabih TV is a dark comedy created by Lebanese director Mohamed A. Berro and written by Fuad Halwani. Set in the city of Beirut, it follows a fictional TV show, driven by Ahmad, a director fixed on turning his childhood friend, Rabih, into a serial killer. With the help of Marc, a young cameraman seeking “new experiences”, and Nermine, a washed up yet seasoned producer, they start filming and documenting Rabih’s murders. Aside from the project’s unorthodox nature, the four will be obliged to tolerate one another in order to maintain anonymity and find their way to fame.

WORDS FROM THE DIRECTOR

Set in present-day Beirut, Rabih TV is a dark comedy that follows a film crew’s amateurish attempts to produce snuff films. Rabih, an ill-tempered thirtysomething local thug, is recruited by the crew to act as the main protagonist/killer for their films. The series was conceived out of the desire to explore the possibility of having a predominantly western phenomenon – namely serial killing – take place in a local context. Despite its close resemblance to the city of Beirut, the universe within which the events of the series take place is one where the omnipresent policing body never physically manifests, lending an eerie inconsequentiality to the protagonists’ actions. In doing so, Rabih TV toys with the idea of the camera taking on a right usually reserved for sovereign bodies – the right to decide who lives and who dies. Rabih TV investigates the dual role of the camera as both an instigator and market supplier of the performance of violence. Together, these two factors contribute towards the transformation of Rabih to a killer. – MOHAMED A. BERRO

PRODUCER’S STATEMENT

Rabih TV is a Cinemoz original series, part of a portfolio of disruptive MiddleEastern genre fictions. With the region facing exciting changes and challenging endeavors, Rabih TV also unapologetically embraces and captures the Arab World’s generational voice of counter culture and 2.0 youth aspirations. The creators ensured a premium production value and heavily character driven narrative were crafted into to the show from the ground up, in order to position Rabih TV as one of the first of its kind high-quality Arabic fictions, that has the ability to capture cross territory audiences while providing a strong message to anyone from the Middle East and anyone who’s interested in looking at it from the outside in.

The producers desired Rabih TV to unapologetically and wholeheartedly highlight social hierarchies, rebellion, frustration, sex, religion, postmodernism, dictatorship, corruption, and even daily habits we experience around the Arab world in a cynical, raw, dark and straightforward humor. Dialogue and expression are pushed to the extreme in an effort to maintain the show’s ambient tension. Rabih TV is raw, obscene, absurd and violent without any remorse when it comes to the substance it delivers and mediums which it delivers it through.

With very limited resources and bold ambitions to challenge a regional statusquo in regards to televised fiction, Rabih TV is a very proud first instalment of the Cinemoz’ original series slate. Mohamed A. Berro and Fuad Halwani’s creators team made sure to break through an important message dear to an entire generation of viewers, and deliver an original Arab series that did not fall far from their tree. In that sense, Rabih TV feels like it sits at the intersection of the Middle East’s nouvelle vague and great serial fiction. – KARIM SAFIEDDINE

Gallery

CAST

SAID SERHAN: Said Serhan is a Lebanese actor, writer and producer. His career took off with directors Issam Bou Khaled and Michel Kammoun, and a long collaboration with Al Jazeera children channel. Said also played roles on Qiamat al Banadiq and Darb al Yasmeen, and Sophie Boutros’ film Mahbas. He played an award-winning role in Wissam Charaf’s Tombé du Ciel, and worked on many features, short films, and plays.

MHAMAD SAFA: Mhamad safa was born in 1987. He’s an artist, architect, composer and actor based in Beirut. His work revolves around space and politics of sound. Along with his practice in architecture, Mhamad took part in numerous exhibitions and shows, and composed music for films and installations.

NOOR MAGHOUT: Noor Maghout is a Syrian film & stage actress based in Beirut, Lebanon. Noor is undergoing her bachelor studies in theatre at the Lebanese University in Hadath, Lebanon. Her acting career includes many prominent roles in local and international films, namely, The Day I Lost My Shadow by Soudad Kaadan, a main role in the third season of the Lebanese series Beirut Waw, and numerous theatre performances.

NICOLAS CARDAHI: Born in 1987, Nicolas Cardahi is a Lebanese videographer, editor, director and actor. He studied Cinema at SaintJoseph University, Lebanon. Nicolas is known for his acting roles on the Lebanese drama film One of These Days, and the popular series Beirut, I love you (which also featured his directorial and script work on one of the episodes).