'D-City' a new comedy series about three expat women experiencing the city, is currently shooting at the Iris lounge in The Oberoi hotel in Dubai.
The series is the brainchild of Jordanian graduate Naim Zaboura. He told The National: “The way this came about is that ever since I was in film school, I’ve wanted to write for TV,” says Zaboura, who went to the New York Film Academy in Abu Dhabi. “And I’ve been so frustrated waiting for someone to believe in English-language programming in the Middle East that I decided to do something about it myself.”
Zaboura amassed his own funds to executive produce the show, along with actresses Laura Quirke and Mylène Gomera who are co-producers and play the lead actresses.
Gomera plays an American real-estate company owner and is the daughter of a Wall Street magnate. Quirke plays a wide-eyed Australian office manager and Dalia Sharawi plays a Jordanian-Lebanese socialite who grew up in Dubai and is living off her father’s fortune.
DCity! team filming at Bambah Boutique, from left, stylist Melissa Rahal, director of photography Rene J Auguste and actresses Myléne Gomera, Laura Quirke and Dalia Sharawi. (Photo courtesy of The National/A. Robertson)
“When you go to the UK or US, you have different nationalities, but they adopt the culture of the country. But the beauty of Dubai is that there isn’t just a majority of expats, but they come with a large baggage of culture, which they then share with others here,” Quirke told The National.
The pilot 'Date Me Out of Here' starts with Quirke's character on a bad date, and future episodes will showcase Dubai's melting pot of cultures against the backdrop of the city's arts and culture scene.
Zaboura was planning to debut the series as 10 minute shorts online Netflix-style, but it has now been picked up by Arab Telemedia Group in Jordan, which will produce and distribute it as a 30- episode TV series next year.
The pilot will be broadcast on www.dcitytv.com during Ramadan.
