War-torn Syrian town springs back to life with Jackie Chan-produced film shoot
- Home Operation, inspired by China’s 2015 evacuation of Chinese and other foreign citizens from the Yemen war, is being shot in Hajar al-Aswad
- The once densely populated Damascus suburb was flattened in 2018, but some locals have returned to the least damaged parts, leaving the rest completely uninhabited
A ghost town since a 2018 operation to flush out jihadists, Hajar al-Aswad near the Syrian capital has come back to life as the location of a Jackie Chan-produced action movie.
Home Operation is inspired by China’s 2015 evacuation of Chinese and other foreign citizens from the war in Yemen, an operation that was seen as a landmark for Beijing.
Yemen was deemed too dangerous a venue to shoot and some scenes of the film, which is also backed by an Emirati production company, are being shot in Syria, although the script only mentions a fictional country called “Poman”.
The ruins of Hajar al-Aswad on Thursday filled with a motley crew of actors in Yemeni tribal attire, Syrian extras in uniform and polo-wearing Chinese film crew members.
The film pitches itself as a blockbuster that will glorify the role of the Chinese authorities in a heroic evacuation.