This time, the “absent” truly returns; Not in a song that summons him, nor in a voice that reaches from behind a screen, but on a stage in Riyadh, where on October 22, Fadel Shaker ends an absence of about 14 years from public concerts, and begins in the Saudi capital the first steps of his return to the stage. Perhaps one of the coincidences that is difficult not to read artistically is that the night of the return is called “The Return of the Absent.” “Ya Ghayeb,” which was attached to Shaker’s voice more than two decades ago, returns today, not only as a song from his archive, but as if it were reclaiming its owner after a long journey during which his voice came out to the people repeatedly, while he remained far from them.
From the Abu Bakr Salem Theater, and as part of the “Riyadh Season,” Shaker resumes his concerts, on a night that Counselor Turki Al-Sheikh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Entertainment Authority, wrote about through his account on the “X” platform: “Many asked about him, and many waited for his return... The great artist Fadel Shaker meets his fans from Riyadh after a long absence at the Abu Bakr Theater as part of the Riyadh Season concerts.”
Absence from the stage...not from singing. The long absence brings the story back to Rabat. On May 19, 2012, Shaker stood at the “Nahda” Theater during the “Mawazine” Festival. He sang “Maqul,” “Faker,” “Beyond Your Mind,” and “O Ghayeb,” and Yara joined him in “Take Me With You,” while his son Muhammad climbed up next to him to sing “Ruh.” No one knew that that night would turn into one of his last images on stage before his life took a completely different path. After that, he announced his retirement, and then his name was linked to the repercussions of events in Lebanon in 2013, and he moved to the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon. There, his absence from concerts extended for years, but the irony is that Fadel Shaker was absent from the theater more than Fadel Shaker was absent from singing.
A voice expresses “Ain al-Hilweh.” From inside the camp, since 2018, it has begun to gradually break its artistic isolation. He set up a small studio in his residence; He records his voice, and then the recordings are sent electronically to distributors and sound engineers for completion abroad. The song crossed borders that its owner was not able to cross. The features of the comeback began with “We Are Satisfied with Acting,” then followed “Why the Hurt,” “I Looked Better,” “Stay, Meet Me,” “Why,” “Where Are You, My Love,” “The Sweet Dress,” and “Sit in a Place,” arriving at the “Bajmal Nas” project in 2022. In 2025, the comeback accelerated with “The Sweetest Drawing,” “And He Overcame Me,” and “How Are You About My Separation” with his son Muhammad, then “Your longing has awakened.”
Shaker was practically returning to his audience with one song after another, but without a stage. In October 2025, another stage began when he surrendered himself to the Lebanese army, to be retried in person in cases in which judgments had previously been issued in absentia. During 2026, he was acquitted due to insufficient evidence in a separate case related to his accusation of attempting to kill Sheikh Hilal Hammoud. Then the military court released him on bail in other cases, before the travel ban was lifted and his passport was returned to him, while files continued to be considered in which no final ruling was issued. Therefore, the acquittal in the separate case does not mean the end of all his judicial files.
Riyadh... From the award to the stage on January 17, 2026, Shaker was absent from the Joy Awards seats, but he was one of the most prominent winners on its night. The public vote gave him the “Favorite Artist” and “Favorite Song” awards for “Sahhak Al-Shouq,” while Mohamed Fadl Shaker won the “Favorite New Face” award in music.
The father appeared with a recorded message. He said that the years have proven to him that “true art knows its way to people,” and that his voice and songs reaching them after all that time is an honor for him. He is thankful for Riyadh Season, the General Entertainment Authority, and Turki Al-Sheikh. After 9 months, Fadel Shaker actually comes to Riyadh. The city, which he arrived in January with voice and image on a screen, receives him in October, standing in front of the audience. Even Mohammed, who appeared alongside his father in “Mawazine” in 2012, returns to the scene after 14 years as an artist holding his own award. Therefore, “The Return of the Absent” does not summarize a singer’s return to singing; Fadel Shaker had previously returned to singing from a small studio in Ain al-Hilweh, and regained his audience, numbers, and awards before regaining the freedom to travel. What remained postponed for 14 years was theater.
On October 22, Fadel Shaker will begin from Riyadh what he stopped in Rabat in 2012. The author of “O Ghayeb” returns to his audience, and “The Return of the Ghayeb” turns from the title of one night into a new chapter in his story.
With less than 126 days remaining until the beginning of the month of Ramadan, which is considered the most important season in Egyptian drama, none of the works nominated to be shown during it have entered the filming slots yet, despite the presence of announcements about multiple projects that the audience is supposed to watch, according to producers and directors.
The last Ramadan drama season witnessed the delay in showing episodes of a number of dramas for a day or more due to not having finished filming them, with filming continuing until just hours before the episodes were scheduled to be broadcast, which was repeated with the Mai Omar and Yasmine Abdel Aziz series.
Actress Nelly Karim previously criticized the beginning of filming Ramadan works with only 5 written episodes, while completing the rest of the episodes under time pressure, which makes the viewer feel that the work is being prolonged in order to reach 30 episodes.
It is expected that a group of dramas whose events take place in 30 episodes will be shown, including “Ashmawi” by Mohamed Ramadan and Bassem Samra, in addition to “Sultan El Deeb”, which stars Ahmed Al-Awadi with Yara Al-Sokari, while Hamada Hilal continues his presence in the drama through the series “Al-Maddah 7”, and Mai Omar will return to the 30-episode series through “Halima Gibran”, which co-stars with Sayed Ragab, and Amr Saad is also expected to be present. With Karim Fahmy in the fourth part of the series “The Choice”, in addition to presenting a number of works whose events take place in 15 episodes, by a number of artists, including Iyad Nassar, Ahmed Mekky, Ahmed Dawoud, Youssef El Sharif, and Asmaa Jalal.
Artistic producer Muhammad Suleiman told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The delay in filming the works will undoubtedly affect the quality of the works, especially the 30-episode series. Because its makers will be required to work continuously without rest, which will make their concentration less with the pressure of filming and its continuation for long hours, in addition to the delay in starting filming that will cause an increase in the production cost due to the lack of time and the negative impact on the time allocated for editing the episodes.”
Suleiman added, “Filming sites are under great pressure due to filming all the works at the same time, in addition to the presence of a problem with the actors associated with appearing in more than one work as a result of the difficulty of coordinating with them due to conflicting filming schedules. He pointed out that the problem is not only related to not finishing writing the episodes of the works, but the production companies do not decide to start filming until after finalizing the agreements related to the process of selling the work, whether to a platform or a television channel.”
Art critic Mohamed Abdel Rahman told Asharq Al-Awsat, “Any creative work needs a specific amount of time in order to come out appropriately, and reducing the time available to series makers will necessarily be reflected in the level of artistic work,” noting that “a series consisting of 30 episodes needs, according to what is known in the drama industry, about 90 days of continuous filming, and taking into account vacations and various circumstances related to filming, the period is supposed to reach more than 120 days, taking into account the emergency circumstances that arise.” There may be multiple or multiple outdoor filming locations.”
Abdul Rahman explained that the time pressure does not stop at filming, but rather extends to the various stages of making the series, starting from writing, through implementation, to montage and final viewing by the director, before handing over the episodes to the show channels. He expects that the next season will witness works that suffer from some errors and technical gaps as a result of the lack of time and the failure of each stage to have sufficient space to complete it.
The series “Up But,” presented by Mohamed Farraj last Ramadan, witnessed an error in the appearance of a movie theater in the background receiving its patrons in a scene that was supposed to be filming at dawn, while an error appeared in the decorations of the series “The Six Mona Lisas,” presented by Mai Omar, related to changing the decorations in the scene itself. The camera also appeared in a scene from the series “Qatar Sughnout” presented by Mohamed Ragab.
Critic Khaled Mahmoud said that delaying the filming of Ramadan productions has become a familiar habit in Egyptian drama, pointing out that the matter is not only related to production agreements or artist nominations, but rather extends in many cases to the nature of how the stars themselves deal with their projects, as some of them remain until the last moments in the process of making adjustments or deciding on choices related to the director and the work team, which delays the start of preparations and filming.
Mahmoud added to Asharq Al-Awsat that early preparation gives the series’ makers more space to think about the details, choose appropriate filming locations, and prepare for the various stages of implementation, instead of resorting to alternative solutions under time pressure.
Palestinian director Moayad Alyan said that his film “Dialogue with the Sea” did not start from an abstract cinematic idea, but rather emerged from a real incident that his wife’s family lived through, when, about 4 years ago, they received a notice from the Israeli “National Insurance Institution” demanding that they pay a large sum accumulated in the name of one of its members, even though he had died by drowning in the Red Sea about 20 years ago.
Moayad Alyan explained, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat via Zoom, that the problem was that the death was not registered in the official system, which put the family in front of a harsh paradox that forced them to prove that a person had actually died, pointing out that this incident remained stuck in his mind, before it later turned into the first spark for a feature film that went beyond the original incident to broader questions about memory, guilt, family, and Jerusalem.
Alian confirmed that a family member had to travel about 300 kilometers to the city of Eilat. The hospital had received the body following the drowning accident, in order to obtain documents proving the death after nearly two decades had passed. He explained that he had seen the details of this experience closely, but he did not intervene at first or think about turning it into a movie, because it was a sensitive issue for the family, before he needed about a year to feel that he could request permission to borrow only the first incident, that is, asking the official family institution to prove the death of a person who died many years ago, to begin the process of building a completely fictional story, stressing that the events and characters in the movie, except for the spark. The first is not a narration of what actually happened, but rather came from his reflections on Palestinian life inside Jerusalem.
The events of “Dialogue with the Sea” revolve around “Kamal,” a sixty-year-old Palestinian man, who receives an order from an Israeli court demanding that he pay a large sum to National Insurance in the name of his son, “Wael,” whom Kamal knows drowned in the Red Sea more than 20 years ago. When he discovers that the authorities do not have an official record proving his son’s death, he begins a journey to search for the truth and reveal what happened to Wael. The investigation into the son’s fate gradually turns into a confrontation with the past, guilt, and his relationship with his family.
The film stars Kamel Al-Basha, Amer Hlehel, Bahira Al-Abbasi, Maria Zureiq, Ruba Bilal, and Haitham Al-Omari. The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in Italy, and its second screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, and received support from the Red Sea Foundation.
Moayad Alyan said that the scenario went through about 4 or 5 versions and modifications, and the most in-depth discussions were related to the character of “Kamal”, embodied by the Palestinian artist Kamel Al-Basha, especially the psychological question about whether the man is really unsure of his son’s death, or whether he creates for himself possibilities and illusions that help him alleviate his feelings of guilt towards his son and his family.
He pointed out that Kamel Al-Basha was present in his mind when he started writing the script, and he kept imagining him in the character through the different versions, explaining that he had known him for about 20 years, since his period of studying and working in the Palestinian National Theater, and that he had previously cooperated with him in his first short film and his first feature film.
He added that at some point he feared that he would not be able to continue writing if the Pasha did not like the script, so he went to his house and asked him to read it, and after he finished it he told him that he agreed to participate, considering that the choice of the Pasha was also important because he is a Jerusalemite and knows the depth of the experience from which the character stems.
Alyan said that filming the film in Jerusalem took place in much more dangerous and terrifying conditions than his previous experiences, due to war and security tension. Therefore, the production process was forced to develop a cautious method of movement and work, especially in the Old City. The crew was treated almost as if it were a team filming a documentary, as makeup, accommodation, food, etc. were distributed to different locations so that the presence of a large cinematic team would not appear to attract attention.
He explained that filming in West Jerusalem was more complicated, because obtaining permits to film a Palestinian Arab production was almost impossible. Therefore, the team resorted to filming some external scenes with a small crew similar to documentary film teams, while rebuilding or replicating some locations in Ramallah and Bethlehem in the West Bank when the scenes required road closures or the presence of a larger number of workers and equipment.
He pointed out that the most difficult scene he faced during filming was filming a scene of a night procession on the Via Dolorosa, due to the presence of a number of extras and the risk of attracting the attention of the occupation, in addition to the appearance of settlers while filming night scenes in the streets of Jerusalem. He pointed out that the presence of a number of foreign crew members, including an Italian director of photography and French camera and lighting technicians, made it difficult for the settlers to know the nature of the group and what it was filming.
The director spoke about the production aspect, explaining that financing the film was one of the most difficult stages of the project, especially with the decline in the budgets of Arab cinema support funds, noting that the “Red Sea Fund” was one of the first parties to support the project, before other parties joined at various stages, in addition to support provided by friends and acquaintances of the family, and the participation of a number of work team members at low wages, based on their desire to complete the film.
The Palestinian director believes that international festivals represent for the Palestinian film more than just a platform for viewing or an opportunity to spread, because they open doors to the film and give it a stamp of international presence. At the same time, the participation of Palestinian work in these festivals carries an additional meaning, which is to confirm the existence of Palestinian cinema, its specificity, and its ability to present its stories, despite the continuous attempts to erase the Palestinian presence and narrative.
