Damascus suburb Hajar al-Aswad has been transformed from a ghost town into the setting of an action movie produced by Hong Kong kung fu star Jackie Chan four years after the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group was ousted from it in 2018.
"Operation Home," whose storyline only mentions a fictional country called "Poman," is inspired by China's 2015 evacuation of hundreds of Chinese and foreign citizens from wartorn Yemen aboard Chinese navy ships. Beijing boasted then of the success of the operation, emphasizing its humanitarian role and its growing global influence.
Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, is still torn by war. It is considered too dangerous, so some scenes of the film, co-produced by the United Arab Emirates, are being shot in Syria.
A motley bunch of actors in traditional Yemeni attire, Syrian extras and the Chinese film crew were on hand from Thursday for a shoot expected to last several days. Jackie Chan was not scheduled to travel to Syria for the filming, but he is the main producer of what the synopsis of the film presents as a blockbuster meant to salute the role of the Chinese authorities in a heroic evacuation.
Director Yinxi Song confirmed the film's laudatory intent. "We put ourselves in the shoes of Communist Party diplomats, who braved a deluge of bullets in a war-torn country and brought all the Chinese compatriots back to a warship of the country, safe and sound," he explained to the press, while his team settled in Hajar al-Aswad and tanks took up position for the shoot.
The ambassador of China, one of the few countries to have maintained good diplomatic relations with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, was present for the launch of filming on Thursday. A banner reading "Peace & Love" could be seen hanging from the front of a tank as the small ceremony got underway.
Hajar al-Aswad was once a densely populated suburb south of Damascus, near the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Both areas were the scene of fierce fighting during the war and were at least partially controlled by the ISIS jihadist group.
The reconquest of the two neighborhoods by Syrian pro-government forces in May 2018 marked the retaking of the whole of Damascus by the regime, but entire sections of Hajar al-Aswad have been razed, turning the neighborhood into a soulless jungle of gray buildings.
A few residents have returned to the less damaged parts of the city, but the rest have been left completely uninhabited.
"War-ravaged areas have turned into studios. These areas attract film producers," says co-director Rawad Chahine, who is part of the Syrian film crew. “Building similar studios in these areas is very expensive, so they are considered low-cost studios,” he adds.
