By Jamal Ahmad Jameel
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - When it is finished and aired, Bakhtyar Rasheed’s new television drama will be a production of a different kind: His first venture with private funding, a new concept in Iraqi Kurdistan’s rapidly growing economy.
The entire $200,000 production cost for the 30-episode Tarmayi Tawan (Shadow of Crime) is coming from the Babylon Media Company, which is pioneering commercial production of television shows in the autonomous Kurdish enclave of five million people in northern Iraq.
Ghaffar Abdullah, director of Babylon’s Sulaimani office which is overseeing the project, says that the company could sell the soap opera when it is finished in four months, and is open to ventures with other investors or producers.
“Babylon has cooperated on a number of festivals, and has been running Canal 4 and Korek TV for a year. Five months ago, Babylon opened an office in Sulaimani and started its activities there, including the production of this soap opera, which is one of our main activities,” acccording to Abdullah.
Rasheed, who wrote the script and got things going with Babylon, says that working with private backers for the first time has been a great experience, much more efficient than trying to get funding from governments or institutions.
With private funding, Rasheed says he does not have to spend long hours on actors’ contracts and other small details of financing.
“Instead, the producer can focus on his work,” he explains, adding that actors are also much happier – and have greater freedom -- with this arrangement.
“This is the only work in which actors are treated as they should be,” said actor Mustafa Ahmad, who plays the lead role.
Production director, Jabbar Maaruf, says that working with Babylon has had a big impact on quality. “I have not seen any other work as successful and as high quality as this one,” he says proudly.
Seventy percent of the work has already been finished. Actors, earning no less than $3,000 for major roles and half that for minor ones, were paid half their earnings in advance. They were also provided accommodation. “Babylon has done what no other company has ever done for the actors,” Rasheed notes.
The soap is a drama that “tackles social issues, love, dishonesty, trade, and youth problems, as it deals with the reality of daily life in Kurdish society,” according to Rasheed.
