A Young Saudi's Online Gambit

Mohammad Badr, 27, a graphic designer, meets with friends at a coffee shop after work on Wednesdays to watch the latest episodes of "Why Me?" and "Big Trouble."

"What's great about it is that here are these young guys with very limited resources, and very little experience, who have done something totally new, different than the traditional Arab shows we're used to," he said.

Sikhan's biggest challenge has been financing. He sold some stocks and dug into his savings from his teaching job at a technical college and freelance work as an advertising copywriter to come up with more than $50,000 to produce the shows and pay for their hosting on U.S.-based Web servers, he said.

Sikhan and Mohammad al-Qass, 30, a Syrian actor who plays the role of the matron Shawqat, made the rounds of more than 30 businesses and advertising and media companies trying to get sponsorship for the channel.

"The media and advertising companies either want control over the content or to copyright it for themselves," said Qass, who works in magazine marketing. "And Saudi businesses are still scared of advertising on the Internet."

Filming in Saudi Arabia, where people are not used to seeing actors or cameras on the street, can be a challenge. Noisy, curious crowds form quickly, making it difficult to film, Qass said.

Sikhan chose Qass to play the female role in "Big Trouble" because of the Saudi ban on the sexes mingling in public that is based on a strict interpretation of Islam. Sikhan said he would love to see female actors playing respectable roles, but he was not willing to risk being arrested by the religious police, who enforce the ban.

In a recent street scene in which Shawqat is kidnapped, a member of Sikhan's crew parked at the head of a small side street, pretending his car had broken down, so the scene could be shot in privacy.

Qass, in makeup and bodysuit as Shawqat, waited in the car while the crew set up, he said. Cross-dressing is illegal in Saudi Arabia, and he did not want to be carted off by the religious police. But he got some male attention nonetheless.

"While I was waiting in the car smoking a cigarette, this one guy kept motioning for me to open my Bluetooth so that he could send me his number," Qass said, referring to a wireless device.

Because acting and writing opportunities are so rare in the region, Sikhan has been swamped with requests from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain, from young people looking for acting roles or wanting to work together on future projects.

Sikhan said he hoped to expand the channel when he had the money because he wanted to promote indigenous work. "We are too dependent on the rest of the world," he said, sipping a latte at a coffee shop in Riyadh, the capital.

He held up his white head scarf and said, "This was made in England." Then he tugged at his traditional white thobe. "This is from Japan." He lifted up his cellphone: "And this we get from Finland. We make almost nothing here."

Sikhan's next project is a political comedy set in the near future. In it, President Bush, having just finished his second term in office, answers a president-wanted ad. He takes the job -- and becomes leader of a fictitious Arab country, Arabistan.

Qass, who will play the role of Bush, has been busy studying the president's inflections and mannerisms. "Ever since we were young, it's been one-way traffic of entertainment and drama from the West," he said. "We know America and how Americans think because of television shows and films. With this show, we want to open a window into our brains and reveal the way we view the world."