From the neighborhoods of the Hijaz and the Levant that live in the bosom of history, nobility and heritage, to the trenches of bullets, guns and death during the First World War, the events of the huge epic drama Safar Berlak move between two contradictory worlds that brought them together at one time.
It is shown on MBC1, and the VIP package from Shahid in Ramadan. The production was directed by Badr Alloush, and Firas Dahni supervised the production operations, while the general supervision was Safaa Abu Rizk.
Dramatic work Safar Berlak
The work is the last project for which the late director Hatem Ali prepared a few days before his death, and it was directed by Al-Laith Hajjo.
The championship was distributed among stars from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and the Arab world: Abd al-Rahman al-Yamani, Anas Tayara, Wissam Fares, Beo Shihan, Moayad al-Thaqafi, Mila al-Zahrani, Khaled Yaslam, Hind Muhammad, Muhammad Bakhsh, with the participation of the Arab star Abed Fahd, and the stars Fadi Sobeih. Talal Al-Jurdi, Camille Salameh, Nancy Khoury, Natasha Shoufani, Rayan Harakeh, Aziz Gharbawi, and others.
The events take place before and during the period of the First World War, which was known in the Arab world and the Middle East as Safar Berlik. As soon as the state of general mobilization imposed by the Ottoman firman in 1914 was announced, the tragedy affected most Arab families and cities whose men and sons were taken together to the eastern and western fronts. To face their fate in a devastating war that lasted for 4 years.
A huge production of a timeless historical epic, MBC studios wanted it to be the largest of its kind this year, as it harnessed more than 14 thousand human crowds for it, in addition to about 95 main actors and 120 supporting actors, who embodied through about 1000 main scenes the features of this qualitative drama. The events of which combine stories of love and war… tragedy and heroism… injustice and hope… sacrifice and independence.
The scenes of Medina were filmed within a productive city that was built specifically to simulate the events, whose decorations were supervised by Muhammad Amin, as Medina was built at that time, on an area of 25 thousand square meters.
While the scenes of Istanbul were filmed within another city that was specially built to simulate the city of Istanbul at that time on an area of about 20,000 square meters, not to mention the scenes of wars and fronts in Siberia and the Caucasus, as well as other scenes that were filmed in Damascus, Beirut and elsewhere.
Artists participating in Berlak travel
In the photography department, a contract was signed with Mahmoud Youssef, who is well-known from Egypt, and he has works such as Bucharest Conversations, Newton’s Game, Blood Testament (from the original works of Shahid), a dead photographer and others, while he photographed battle scenes in Egypt Amr Farouk, and he took over the management of filming scenes In Lebanon, Aoun’s role, and in Syria, Bashir Al-Hajj directed photography.
And for the visual effects, the expertise of the visual effects producer, Manolis Ibrahim, was used, and he has works such as Wannous, Is This What Happened, The Stone of Hell, Heart of Justice, and others.. and Petro Coco, who has previously worked on huge Hollywood productions, most notably: Captain Marvel, participated with him. Total Recall, King’s Man, Doctor Strange and others.
The soundtrack was composed by Tunisian composer Amine Bouhafa, winner of the French César Award for Best Music for Timbuktu, and the Sassam Award for the French Composers, Composers and Music Arrangers.