Anyone who has ever set foot in Beirut was baffled at the second episode of the latest season of the American show, which showed gunmen leaping from cars and harassing terrified women in a dirty and dangerous “Hamra Street.”
In reality, this road is actually a smart, commercial centre, full of expensive restaurants, arty bars, late night clubs and boutiques.
During the episode, Carrie Mathison, played by Claire Danes, wore a hair-covering hijab, but women in the fashionable part of Beirut where the scene is reportedly set are just as likely to be dressed in Western designer threads, with as much hair and skin on display as they feel like.
Fady Abboud, Lebanese minister of tourism, expressed outrage at the “serious misrepresentation” of the city, reports The Telegraph.
“We are following the case legally. I raised this at the cabinet meeting and the president asked the minister for justice and the minister of communications to see what can be done,” he said.
“I am calling on all young Lebanese adults to do what they need to do; to write blogs, to call the BBC and CNN to try to raise awareness that Beirut is not a city of Kalashnikov and war. I am calling on youths to splice images of the war-torn Hamra of Homeland with the real street.”
“They should display it in Skybar,” he added, referring to one of Beirut’s sophisticated and expensive nightclubs.
To add insult to injury for the Lebanese tourism ministry, the episode was filmed in neighbouring Israel, a country with which Lebanon is still at war.
Tom Fletcher, the British ambassador to Lebanon said: “Homeland is one of life’s joys, but Lebanon tends to get a rough time from filmmakers – I’d encourage people to see the real Beirut.”
Image via Getty
