A mischievous young boy named Abood and four larger-than-life Emirati grandmothers will be at Emirates Palace from Thursday through to Saturday as part of the Abu Dhabi Summer Season line-up.
Freej Live: Abood's Dream will be launched in Arabic and English and features the U.A.E.'s favourite home-grown grannies from the famous Freej television series created in 2006 by the Emirati animation director Mohammed Saeed Harib.
But Harib, 37, claims he "can't animate to save his life”.
"Many people think of me as the animator guy, but I'm actually a director, a scriptwriter and an artist. I am a jack of all trades and, with time, I hope that I can ace several of them,” he says with a laugh.
Abood's Dream
Abood's Dream, produced by Flash Entertainment, is about a boy who embarks on a fantasy adventure while looking after one of the grandmother's pets, a canary that lives in a fish bowl. Along the way, he makes new friends and learns important life lessons. Abood is the young grandson of Um Saeed, known affectionately as Abood Zakho. He was introduced to the Freej cast in the show's second season, when he is dropped off at Um Saeed's house for the day because his mum is about to give birth to her second child. Abood has a mischievous nature and is known for his pranks.
"Abood's Dream is a Barney-style show with larger-than-life costumes, music, dancing and a local cultural twist,” says Harib. "We don't usually have this kind of offering for Arab kids. It's always the Barneys and Bob the Builders, the international children's shows that come from overseas.”
Stories of Emirati life
Though it's targeted at young children, Harib says a lot of grandmothers come to the shows, too.
"They're my favourite part of the audience. For a grandmother to watch a cartoon – that's great to me. I think for them, Freej invokes a lot of memories. It represents them in a very respectful way, not like Arabic soap operas where they're killed off, handicapped or have no say. These are super-heroes who join together and solve problems and that's why people love them.”
The show, now in its eighth season, is about how the grandmothers try to adapt to modern life in the U.A.E. – a subject that strikes a chord for many Emiratis.
"Mentally, it's hard for that generation. Forty years ago, these women were living in very small neighbourhoods with no air conditioning, waiting for months on end for their husbands to return from pearl-diving trips. Now, they're chilling on yachts on the Palm Jumeirah. Freej is about how they deal with that change,” explains Harib.
Archiving heritage
Harib acknowledges the bond between families is not as strong as it once was.
"I think we're losing the bonds between family members in general, because of the Internet. My own family has a WhatsApp group, so we rarely talk to each other at home because we've already said whatever we need to say through a device. Most families still maintain the tradition of gathering on Fridays, but I don't know for how much longer.
"Through Freej, we are archiving it so when 50 years down the line things have changed drastically, we can go ‘look at the good old days'.”
Source: The National