Asala guest-stars in ‘Thousand and One Nights’

Singer Asala joined joined the series "‘Thousand and One Nights" as a guest star, to be directed by her husband Tarek El Arian in her first foray into acting. The star has not yet revealed her role. Tarek El Arian has continued shooting the show in the Manesterly Palace in Rawda, Cairo, and has also started post-production. Actress Horia Farghaly was last to join the cast as Dinar Zad. Meanwhile, show producer Adel Abd Allah has decided to not broadcast the series in the Ramadan season as he wanted to present the show, based on ancient tales, to Arab audiences "in the best way possible". Adel said that this was a new opportunity for Egyptian filmmakers to "prove they are capable of presenting a different picture from what we have now". "The show is based to stories from our Arab heritage and we try to present and introduce to new generations the reality of their Arabic and Islamic civilisation, it should be impressive, fascinating and able to attract them from the dramatic and technical sides," he added. The series involves big names such as Donia Samir Ghanem, Eiad Nassar, Ghada Abdel Razik, Nicole Saba, Mohamed Fahim, Horia Farghaly and Amr Abdel Galil. The sets are by Mohamed Atteya, costumes by acclaimed Lebanese fashion designer Nicola Gibran, filming by Mazen Al Motagawel and graphics by Yasser El Naggar. Abd Allah said they are currently trying to reach an agreement with the Al Hayat channel on the best time to release the series.