Netflix Announces First Arabic Original Series From The Middle East, By A Lebanese Director

Netflix have just announced that their first Arabic original series will debut around the world in 2019. Jinn, is a “young adult fantasy adventure,” directed by Lebanese director Mir-Kean Bou Chaaya, director of the 2015 hit Very Big Shot (Film Kteer Kbeer). It’s the first original series of its kind for the Arab world, after the Lebanese stand-up comedian Adel Karam was given his solo comedy show, Adel Karam: Live from Beirut, that launched on the first of March this year.


The series will feature a wide array of Middle Eastern talent, and will be set in Jordan, the backdrop to many recent box office hits, like the 2015 Oscar nominated and Golden Globe Winning, The Martian. The series is by executive producers Elan and Rajeev Dassani, and written by Jordanian screenwriter Bassel Ghandour who’s screenplay Theeb (also filmed in Jordan) was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2016.





The adventure-filled series will be a teenage drama centered around the lives of Arab youngsters who’s lives are disrupted when they are introduced to a jinn in Petra, putting their relationships and perseverance to the test.





The upcoming six-episode series will launch in 2019, and will be available for viewing by all Netflix members worldwide. We are so delighted to see Arab youth being portrayed positively on such a huge global platform, in a way that is youthful, refreshing, adventurous and new, as opposed to the ways we are usually portrayed in Western media. We are also so proud to see such grand talent from the Middle East being recognized, appreciated, and merged, and set on a platform from which the world can celebrate our culture with us.