Syrian soaps move to Beirut

byHabib Battah
Jul 16, 2013

From the set of Wiladi Mi Khasri (Pregnant from the Waist) one of several major Syrian productions being shot in Beirut–directed by Seif Sbei.

If you’ve been watching the latest Syrian TV dramas this Ramadan, you’ll notice many of them have been shot on the streets of Lebanon. Syrian producers and directors say much of the vast Syrian production industry has relocated to Beirut.

Read more about how this move is impacting both Lebanese and Syrian writers and directors in my latest piece for Al Jazeera.

“When in exile, you change,” a Syrian scriptwriter told me. “The Syrian people are changing and the Lebanese people will change too.”

Habib Battah

Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 20 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.