A new film, called “Beirut,” just came out and the Lebanese people are already criticizing it as a “piece of trash”. The movie is about an American citizen taken hostage in the course of the civil war in Beirut, Lebanon.The film is Directed by Brad Anderson and Starring Jon Hamm. The film is set to be released on April 13th, which is 43rd Anniversary of the Lebanese civil war.
Many Western movies attempt to show the war-torn Lebanon, in places outside Lebanon to enhance the negative stereotype of unrest in the Arab world, specifically the age of civil wars. It is socially acceptable to make a film about a certain country, what is upsetting most people though, is the fact that the film was neither filmed in Lebanon, or had any Lebanese actors, directors, cast members, or even had anyone speaking Lebanese dialect.
The movie has not yet officially come out, but the trailer alone is angering the Lebanese nation, most specifically when the trailer gave itself the right to say “2,000 years of revenge, vendetta, and murder.” The only two things that have to do with Lebanon in the trailer, are some references to the Lebanese civil war and the title of the movie.
Boycotting the Beirut film. I will not watch it and give my money to those scum
— Haidoura (@Haidar_LDN) January 12, 2018
“This trailer is trash and the majority of it is not an accurate representation of Lebanon’s Beirut, the civil war or Lebanese people,” Rachelle Mehdi, a Lebanese-American graduate student studying public policy, wrote on Facebook. Since then till the present day in Lebanon, so much has happened in Lebanon, including being conquered and having to gain their independence back a few times.
The 961 Lebanese Magazine took it upon themselves to correct the film about those 2,000 years, stating “Phoenicians were teaching the world the alphabet. Phoenicians also came up with the way to navigate the sea using astronomy. Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary, visited on multiple occasions. Jesus’ first miracle took place in Lebanon.”
