I always thought of paranormal investigation as a mainly Western activity, so I was surprised to discover that Egyptian novelist Ahmed Khaled Tawfik wrote 81 installments of Ma Waraa Al Tabiaa (Beyond Nature). Cantakerous physician Refaat Ismail and his stable of scoobies, lovers, ex-lovers, friends, and enemies encounter a werewolf, a cannibal, a lake monster, a minotaur, and so on. Some adventures take them to the past, to the future, and to alternate worlds.
Six of the stories have been adapted for tv under the unfortunately blah title Paranormal (maa wara' altabieat, "Metaphysics" in the original Arabic, which is even worse).
No beefcake -- Refaat (Ahmed Amin) is elderly, grizzled, and unattractive, and the next six cast members listed on IMDB are all women: his sister, his fiancee, his ex-girlfriend, the ghost he fell in love with as a boy, yada yada yada. All I found was 20-year old Ahmad Dash, (top photo) who plays Refaat's older brother in a flashback to his childhood -- in one episode.
No gay characters, which you would expect in an Arabic series, but the lack of male cast members means that even uninntentional gay subtexts are absent. The book series gives Refaat lots of male friends and enemies for subtext-searching.
1. Ezzat, a sculptor who was the subject of an early paranormal investigation, and is now a friend.
2. Adel, the government official who begrudgingly helps with the investigations.
3. Harry Sheldon, a brash American.
4. Jewish-American con artist Sam Colby.
Here they are all absent. The story is about the fiancee, the ex-lover, and the ghost girl.
So, is the exotic appeal of an Arabic X-Files enough to warrant a look?
Nope. But here are some more pictures of Ahmad Dash for your trouble.
The trailer looks spooky
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