TV Iraqi style

It's the day of the semi-final of Iraq's most popular reality TV show, "Iraq Star". Eighteen year old Marwa Ahmad is shaking with nerves. She's already beaten off stiff competition to make it to the final four. Now, she has to sing in front of a live audience. "Iraq star is a real opportunity for me", she explains.

 

It's not only Marwa who is nervous. Her parents, who come from one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Baghdad, have forked out two months wages so that Marwa can be a star. But after her performance, the judges are waiting to pounce. "Her choice of songs was extremely unsuccessful", slates Mo Hadi, Iraq's very own Mr Nasty. Marwa's fate is now in the hands of an audience phone vote.

 

For years, Iraq TV was trapped in the dark ages. Satellite TV was banned and the government controlled the only two channels. "If Saddam moved, you'd see it on every channel and they'd keep repeating it", states one man. So when Saddam was ousted, TV operators were poised to make a killing. "We couldn't keep up", recalls one satellite salesman. "A satellite was something new and strange." As soon as Iraqis got home and plugged in their new satellite dishes, shows from across the Arab world flooded in. They got everything from Lebanese dancing girls to badly dubbed South American soaps.

 

But although these programmes offered a fascinating glimpse of the outside world, they didn?t connect with the Iraqi public. With the launch of Iraq's first specialist entertainment channels, viewers can at last feast themselves on home grown soaps and reality TV. While most Iraqis struggle to find work, actors are now busier than ever. Walid Shamel Al Dourin is one of the country's leading actors. He stars in Colours of Ash, a soap opera set in the bloody world of post-Saddam Iraq. But today, filming has hit the buffers because there's no electricity. "We wait and we wait. All our lives we wait!" fumes Walid. The show has also been hit by a more sinister problem - one of the leading actors has been arrested for being an insurgent. "They say he is involved in some criminal activities. It's a shock, a real shock to me", confides Walid.

 

In a bizarre twist of fate, it's rumoured his colleague may now appear on another Iraqi TV show, "Terrorism in the Hands of Justice". This nightly programme features the confessions of alleged insurgents. But the problems of post-Saddam Iraq, which hindered production on Colours of Ash, are being embraced by another show. Labour and Materials, presented by the "Oprah of Iraq", Shaima Zujbeir, is a property makeover show with a difference. All the homes featured have been bombed. "When they first told me of the idea, I thought they were joking", states Shaima. In the past two years, they've rebuilt six houses. The votes are finally in on Iraq Star. Marwa's family have spend their last remaining savings on phone cards so that she can vote for herself. But her dismay, she is booted out. "I don't understand it", she says, collapsing in tears. However, days later, she is handed a wild card to attend the competition final. Baghdad's booming TV industry has changed Marwa's life.