With young actors in leading roles, most of them are making their debut on TV, the new Egyptian series Balto (doctor’s white coat) offers light comedy with a good story that appeals to everyone.
The series premiered on Watch It platform in ten episodes, and has gained high viewership rates, despite the absence of big-name actors.
The series represents the first leading role for rising actor Essam Omar, the first screenwriting experience for writer Ahmed Atef Fayyad and the first directing experience for director el-Mohandes.
The story revolves around the young doctor Atef (Essam Omar), who is assigned upon his graduation to a health unit in a rural village, and then suddenly finds himself becoming the director of the health unit after the doctor in charge dies on the same day of Atef’s arrival to the unit.
Atef is then responsible for everything in the unit and its employees without having any previous experience.
The story is based on the novel Balto, Fanela and Tabby Ahmed Atef Fayyad – who is also a doctor and most of the events in the novel happened in real life.
Fayyad presents a well-written script with a high sense of humor.
The series depends on the comedy of the situation without imposing unrelated events or bad words. Atef comes from Cairo and he has little experience of life’s harsh realities.
So, he stumbles into many comic situations in every step he takes in the village because he doesn’t know the culture of the villagers, their customs, traditions, and their different way of life.
Each of the ten 30-minute episodes is self-contained with an uncomplicated storyline.
The best thing about the series is that it offered real characters that one can see in everyday life. Atef, for example, is one of many people who did not live their childhood and youth normally.
He was forced at an early age to follow his father’s desire to become a doctor. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, he finds himself in a place which he thinks that he doesn’t fit.
He was assigned to work in a remote village, a location of which he does not know any information about, and he must work in difficult conditions on a low salary, and this is the case of most newly graduated doctors.
The simple and spontaneous performance by each actor in the series was really astonishing, especially the performance of the extremely talented actor Essam Omar who was a perfect fit for the role and also the attractive actress Mariam el-Gendy who played doctor Hager.
Also, veteran actress Arfa Abdel Rasul gave a great performance in portraying the strict nursing supervisor who controls the nurses and aims at maintaining stability in the unit.
The villain of the piece is Sheikh Marzouk, is a juggler who makes the whole village believe in his super powers and they stop believing in doctors because he convinces them that he can cure them without medicine. Marzouk is portrayed by veteran actor Mahmoud el-Bezawi.
Also, director Omar el-Mohandes proved his talent in his directing debut as he cares for every detail and has a good sense of comedy.
