Duraid Lahham’s comeback
Veteran Syrian comedian will star in ‘Dimashq – Halab’, his first since 2006
Veteran Syrian comedian Duraid Lahham, famous across the Arab world for the character of Ghawwar Al Tawsheh, is making a comeback in films this summer with DimashqHalab (DamascusAleppo).
Lahham, 84, has not appeared in movies since 2006, and is presently billing with his former costar Sabah Al Jazairi, with whom he shared the Arab stage in notable productions such as Ghorba and Kasak Ya Watan. Their last show together kicked off from Tunisia and was filmed for Arab audiences in Abu Dhabi.
Jazairi, now famous for her role in the nine-season epic Bab Al Hara, began her artistic career in the early 1970s in a famous black and white comedy with Lahham called Sah Al Nawm.
Their new film is directed by celebrated Palestinian director Basel Al Khatib and written by his brother, Taleed Al Khatib. It is expected to premiere in Syria next August.
Set against the backdrop of the present war, the film tells the story of Eisa (Lahham), a retired radio host who takes a bus from Damascus to Aleppo to visit his daughter Dima (played by Syrian actress Kinda Hanna), who lost her husband during the violence that engulfed the Syrian north. Along the way he sees the destruction across the Syrian heartland, interacting with passengers from
different segments of Syrian society, all of whose lives were ruined by the present conflict.
“The film sums up Syrian society,” said Lahham to tabloid!. “And in every society there are goodness and evil. Both are contagious and in this particular bus ride, goodness rubs off the Jazairi With Al their early in
passengers, creating a Utopian society that we all dream of.”
Basel Al Khatib notes that the scrip was “tailormade to fit the character of Duraid Lahham.” He adds: “It was very important for me, on a professional and personal level, to work with him. I
can safely say, without exaggeration, that he is a school of art; a lesson in manners, commitment and creativity.” Lahham is a chemist by education and a university professor who started his career during the shortlived Syrian-Egyptian Union back in July 1960. He is a recipient of the Syrian, Jordanian, Libyan, and Lebanese Orders of Merit (Excellence Class). For two decades, he billed as Ghawwar, a mischievous prankster on the streets of Damascus, with a hallmark uniform that made him recognisable throughout the Arab world: an old fez (tarboosh), shirwal (a large baggy trouser) and wooden clogs (kobkab). After the collective Arab defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967, he turned to more serious political satire with stage productions such as Dayat Tishreen (1974), Ghorba (1976), and Kasak Ya Watan tabloid!,