Another bible-themed long-form project is heading to the small screen.Lifetime is going into production with The Red Tent, a two-night miniseries adaptation of the best-selling novel by Anita Diamant published in 1997.
Co-starring in the project, which begins production this month in Morocco, areGame Of Thrones‘ Iain Glen and Will Tudor as well as Debra Winger. The Red Tent tells the story of Dinah (Ferguson), the daughter of Leah and Jacob, who is only briefly referenced in the Old Testament. The miniseries begins with Dinah’s happy childhood spent inside the red tent where only the women of her tribe are allowed to gather and share the traditions and turmoil of ancient womanhood.
Told through Dinah’s eyes, the mini recounts the story of her mothers Leah (Driver), Rachel (Baccarin) , Zilpah and Bilhah, the four wives of Jacob (Glen), and his courtship of them. Dinah goes on to marry a prince and fall out with her murderous brother Joseph (Tudor). Winger portrays Rebecca, Jacob’s mother.
The screenplay will be based on New York Times Best Seller The Red Tent, written by Anita Diamant
Bible scripture says the following about Dinah in Genesis 34.
Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the women of the land. 2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the ruler of that area, saw her, he took her and raped her. 3 His heart was drawn to Dinah daughter of Jacob; he loved the young woman and spoke tenderly to her. 4 And Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as my wife.”
5 When Jacob heard that his daughter Dinah had been defiled, his sons were in the fields with his livestock; so he did nothing about it until they came home.
6 Then Shechem’s father Hamor went out to talk with Jacob. 7 Meanwhile, Jacob’s sons had come in from the fields as soon as they heard what had happened. They were shocked and furious, because Shechem had done an outrageous thing in Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done.
Interesting tidbit, in 19th century America “Dinah” became a generic name for an enslaved African woman.
At the 1850 Woman’s Rights Convention in New York a speech by Sojourner Truth was reported on in the New York Herald, which used the name “Dinah” to symbolize black womanhood as represented by Truth.
In a convention where sex and color are mingled together in the common rights of humanity, Dinah, and Burleigh, and Lucretia, and Frederick Douglas, are all spiritually of one color and one sex, and all on a perfect footing of reciprocity. Most assuredly, Dinah was well posted up on the rights of woman, and with something of the ardor and the odor of her native Africa, she contended for her right to vote, to hold office, to practice medicine and the law, and to wear the breeches with the best white man that walks upon God’s earth.[8]
Lizzie McCloud, a slave on a Tennessee plantation during the Civil War, recalled that Union soldiers called all enslaved women “Dinah”. Describing her fear when the Union army arrived, she said,
We was so scared we run under the house and the Yankees called “Come out Dinah” (didn’t call none of us anything but Dinah). They said “Dinah, we’re fightin’ to free you and get you out from under bondage”.
The name Dinah was subsequently used for dolls and other images of black women.
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Lifetime Confirms And Begins Filming Biblical Miniseries Based On Dinah was originally published on elev8.com
