Review: 10 Reasons Behind "Al Ikhtiyar" Success

Egyptian Ramadan series Al Ikhtiyar (The Choice) drew great attention and many agreed on its success. Families watch it to make it the highest viewing work in Ramadan 2020 drama.

Also, social media fans like it too unlike other Ramadan soaps which are being under criticism and praise at the same time. This report attempts to analyze the reasons for Al Ikhtiyar success and reactions to it:

1- Modernity of events: Al Ikhtiyar constitutes a fact that has happened for a few years, in what can be considered documentation of a period of time from within the Egyptian armed forces. It also represents a reality that is still occurring today in terms of the battles taking place between our armed forces and terrorists.

2- Disclosure of Sinai events: The TV series is the first experience to reveal what is going on in Sinai in the form of realistic coexistence, which was what the Egyptian people needed to find. A reality that we heard about and follow its news remotely.

3- Know Real Heroes: The series represents an excellent opportunity for young people and children to get acquainted with heroes closely like Colonel Ahmed El-Mansy and know about their lives that are similar to all of our lives. We used to listen only to the championships and stories of the October War and old heroes who do not represent the new generations.

4- Public Thirsts for More After Al Mammar: Movie Al Mammar movie marked a strong start to the return of patriotic works, especially those that include live fights. It also succeeded in bringing the family together in an unprecedented way when it was shown for the first time in the homes after its success in the cinemas. Hence, this shows the Egyptian public's thirst for this kind of drama that ignites the enthusiasm in their hearts.

5- We Have The Right to Know: The series embodies the transparency and awareness of the producing company, the official authorities and the armed forces about the importance of raising people's awareness by revealing details and facts about one of its operations and transforming the scenes of its events into a dramatic work that tells, with deep analyzes, the ideas, concerns, and plans of both the national and terrorist sides, including what we do not know about terrorist Hisham Ashmawi Transformation Journey.

6- Dialogue & Scenario: Some patriotic works include dialogue clichés, exaggerated enthusiastic scenarios, or resonant sentences that often approach expressive lyric sentences such as Al Mammar's case, which is avoided by Baher Dowidar, the author, screenwriter, and dialogue writer of Al Ikhtiyar. It shows consideration of logic and sequencing in dialogue and reliance on real situations and sentences to show sincere patriotism.

7- A Group of Stars: The appearance of some young stars as guests of honor was an excellent addition to the work that impressed everyone, as the appearance of the artist Mohamed Imam, for example, gave the character of the short story about the character of the hero martyr Captain Fathi, which supports the great epic story, so that we are waiting for every day a new surprise and a new guest on the main staff.

8- Battle Scenes: The scenes of live battles formed the most important element of the power in the series, which the Egyptian and Arab viewers have missed in a TV drama for years, especially after their return in some cinematic works such as Al-Mammar and Harb Karmouz. It has been proven that the martial character has a very special charm and influence on the viewer, which director Peter Mimi succeeded in highlighting and exploiting him to win over the feelings of the fans through his excellent visual and composition battles.

9- Mass Production: It is known that any artwork that includes fights or chases and explosions needs a lot of money to implement it well and get it out to the public like real scenes. It needed special devices, experts, employ places, buildings and designers of fights and makeup in addition to combat equipment, which makes them more suitable for cinematic works that are often ready for high costs.

10- Real Footage: Director Peter Mimi cleverly relied on the real shots and pictures of the protagonists of the story, and this intelligence appears in the timing of adding them after some scenes or at the end of the episode, especially the scene embodied in the title of the series of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

This scene summarizes many of the ideas targeted to deliver to the viewer, on the concept of Al Ikhtiyar “Making A Choice” as the deepest humanity means, far from bias, intellectual fanaticism or the claim of infallibility to any party, even the army officer who is responsible for protecting and defending the homeland may get lost.

Contributed by Nawal Sayed