So, two young, strong, career-focused women, one from Lebanon and one from Mexico, go to Istanbul to study... and then what happens?
Well, they decide to create a web series, of course.
" My Single Married Friend " is the result of the fast friendship formed between Rania Itani, from Lebanon, and Estefanía Sierra, from Mexico. The two initially met in Beirut.
"A friend in common made the connection between us. So my first days in Beirut were with Rania driving me through the streets of Hamra and making stops at the side of the street to order coffee," Sierra told StepFeed . "She showed me Beirut and that night we had a very Lebanese dinner with her family."
Both women ended up pursuing their masters in radio and television in Istanbul. Drawing on their own personal experiences, the idea for a web series was born.
"It is a very unique story because it comes from unique perspectives of real stuff that we lived," Sierra said. "Most of the time, we can find out about the strangeness of daily life in Turkey, and the nice things about the culture but also as foreign women from two sides of the world, we found universal plots."
One of the things the series explores is something Sierra and Itani discovered through their friendship; how similar the Mexican and Lebanese cultures are. However, as Sierra explained, you can find similarities wherever you go, which is another message highlighted by the series.
"This is an international series because it's a small world after all and we feel that the series gives a sense of peace among cultural differences. At the end we are all human beings and we can relate to each other through similar experiences that we live in daily life."
Working with a Lebanese producer named Ibrahim Shehab and relying partially on crowdfunding, Sierra and Itani made their web series a reality. They plan to release the series in September on YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook.
"We created a bridge between cultures to talk about the labels of society with a twist of comedy when it comes to life’s adaptation. All the main characters find themselves in situations in which they don’t quite fit in," Sierra said, explaining what viewers can expect from the series.
"So you will watch funny and awkward moments of adult life, when you get married, or when you are single, or when you are looking for a job, or when you are at an office."
Having spent more than a year working on developing the series, Itani and Sierra are very excited to finally release their series to the world.
"We are just two women filmmakers from countries where filmmaking production is still on the rise... It wasn't an easy road but we are in this journey and we will move forward."