EXCLUSIVE: Slow Horses star Hiba Bennani will star opposite Asaad Bouab in MBC drama series Rass Jbel.
She will play female lead Yasmina in the show, which is a Moroccan adaptation of Lebanese-Syrian drama Al Hayba (الهيبة), which Cedars Art Production made back in 2017. Nora Skali, Amine Ennaji, Salwa Zarhane, Nasser Akabab and Oussama Bastaoui also star.
Rafic Elzein is producing for Cedars Art Production, as is Amine Benjelloun for Ali n’ Productions. Middle Eastern broadcaster MBC will run the show.
The show is billed as a “high-stakes saga of love, honour, and power,” in which Yasmina returns from Montreal to bury her husband on;y finds herself unwillingly trapped in the town of Rass Jbel. Determined to stay close to her son – the heir to the formidable Fadlaoui clan – she is forced to make increasingly dangerous compromises to protect him.
The original series was for MBC Drama, Netflix, Shahid, MTV Lebanon, and Orbit Showtime, and ran for five seasons between 2017 and 2020 as a ratings hit in the Arabic-speaking world. It was also adapted in Turkey as Al Madina Al Baida.
Bennani’s star has been rising since she played the complex Tara in Season 5 of Apple TV drama series Slow Horses opposite the likes of Gary Oldman, Jack Lowden and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Her other recent roles include parts in another Apple TV show, conspiracy thriller Prime Target, French-Arabic short Donkey Skin, comedy-drama 1995, Moroccian social TV drama 2 Wjouh and Showtime/Paramount+ espionage series Ghosts of Beirut.
Her casting in Rass Jbel was first hinted at on the red carpet of the Marrakech International Film Festival.