Al Jazeera Children revives puppetry with 'Hekayat Al Am Mosleh’

'Hekayat Al Am Mosleh’ Popular teleivision channels Al Jazeera Children and Bara’em TV decided to include “Hekayat Al Am Mosleh” (Uncle Mosleh's Stories) in their Ramadan broadcast schedule. the show depicts a carpentry workshop where "Uncle Mosleh" tells puppets folk tales and cultural stories. Mohamed Allengawy, who plays the leading role, is cast among the likes of Abdul Rahman al-Aql, Mona Shaddad, Nawaf al-Qattan, as well as “Swar Coral” who produced the show's music.
Dr. Abdullah al-Dannan supervised scriptreading with Allengawy and the rest of the team, and trained them on the language and the right pronunciation for some sentences, according to the simple Arabic directory, which has been adopted by Al Jazeera Children and Bara’em.
"As a commitment from us to save out cultural heritage, and puppetry in specific, we decided to experiment with this show," said Saad Al Hudaifi, JCC’s Acting Director of Channels.
“The show, 'Hekayat Al Am Mosleh' is the first of its kind in the Arab world, and we take the opportunity to highlight this valuable art  which holds special value in every family and children’s heart, as well as wildly imaginative stories and plots," he added.
Al Hudaifi said he hoped the show will do well internationally considering its high level of special effects.
The executive producer in Bara’em, Elias Khoury, said: "This show is different because it puts actors with puppets in the same scene...it was a big challenge to shoot this in the studios."
Khoury added: “It was hard to find good actors who were also professional puppeteers...training took a lot of time...Al Jazeera handled the puppet production and sets."
The director of the series, Eyad el-Basha, sp oke about the technical side of things: "We used sepcial sound and lightning techniques to give life to the puppets...two people were used to handle the dolls, one for the movement of the body and one for the movement of the face and mouth. It was so much fun to work with Allengawy as well, he has some interesting performances."
A number of stories and popular fairy tales have been brought to the small screen lately, including "Cinderella", "El Shater Hassan" (The Good Hassan), “Laila Wal Zaeb” (Laila and the Fox), and "Sleeping Beauty". The content has been modified in order to let audiences know the moral lessons.