Precis

This is not your typical revolution. It's not just a group of young idealists pushing for the stars.

The revolution that has filled Lebanon's streets for months on end has broad-based support.

Young and old, rich and poor, Muslim, Christian and Druze are united in their desire to overthrow their corrupt and incompetent leaders and save their country and themselves from economic collapse.

After decades of neglect, the country is on its knees. There's hyperinflation, currency collapse, high unemployment, constant power cuts and people going hungry like never before.

And now the country is dealing with the new coronavirus.

In a rollercoaster ride, Beirut-based correspondent Adam Harvey lived through months of protest and weeks of lockdown and has documented it for Foreign Correspondent.

Adam meets ordinary and extraordinary Lebanese who are struggling to survive and desperately trying to save the country they love.

There's Rima, the owner of a once-grand now crumbling hotel in the country's east, a former haunt of kings, queens and presidents.

Today tourism has dried up and the hotel is struggling. Rima spends her time organising food handouts for hungry neighbours.

"The corruption...has eaten up the Lebanon we've known and we're all trying to save it", she tells us.

He meets Tarek, the star of Revolution TV who's live-streaming the protestors' every move for his popular YouTube channel.

"It's very sad what's happening but Beirut will never die. Beirut will get sick...but Beirut will survive."

There's Tala, a young DJ and part owner of Beirut's biggest nightclub. Instead of spinning discs, she's in lockdown, worried about her country's future.

"Right now, our country has sunk so low...and it will be very, very hard to come back from that."

And we meet unemployed Imad Awad, who doesn't have enough money to pay for heating or his wife's medicine.

The coronavirus is putting more pressure on a country already in strife. But it can't kill the revolution. As the lockdown lifts, the protestors are coming back.

"We want action now. We want to see a result immediately on the streets for the people - otherwise there is no country", warns Tarek.

In a visually arresting story, we meet four Lebanese from different walks of life, all united in their desire to bring their country back from the brink.

Drone shot. Protest in Martyrs Square, Beirut. Super:
Beirut, Lebanon

Music

00:00

Adam walks through crowd. Super:
Reporter
Adam Harvey

00:13

Title:
Revolution in the Time of Corona

00:20

Protest shots continue

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: It’s February on the battle-scarred streets of downtown Beirut. There’s been a four month slide towards total financial meltdown and revolution is still in the air.

00:40

Adam to camera

Lebanon is falling apart. This nation survived a civil war, but it might not make it through its next challenge. There is no money and no jobs, and people are furious that their state is close to collapse.

00:56

Protest shots continue

Months of angry protests have unified rich and poor, young and old, Christian, Muslim and Druze. They want to dump all of Lebanon’s political leaders and start again.  They call it the Revolution -- ‘Thawra’ in Arabic.

01:10

Tarek filming on his phone

And live-streaming it all to 60,000 followers, Thawra TV.

Tarek:  "What’s the story here today?"

Woman: "We’re here until the end."

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Its chief cameraman, producer and on-screen talent is Tarek Hmaydane, a wheeler-dealer businessman turned social media star.

01:29

TAREK HMAYDANE:  When the Lebanese media is not there Thawra TV is there.

01:52

Tarek interview

Thawra TV is with every revolution with their phone.  We don’t have fancy cameras or fancy technology.

01:55

Protest continues

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: This is as close to Lebanon’s parliament building, and the politicians, as protestors can get.

02:03

Derelict downtown area

After a 15-year civil war ended in 1990, the city centre was immaculately restored. It now lies derelict, scarred by political upheaval.

02:11

Tarek, wearing gas mask, filming on phone

02:27

Tarek: "And now we are live, today, Saturday."

02:30

Protestors throw fireworks

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter:  The protesters have already toppled a prime minister and his cabinet, but their allies are still in power.

TAREK HMAYDANE:  They’re not changing. That’s why we are waiting for the election.

02:34

Tarek interview

You cannot change people by parachute like what happened with the government. They put people in places. The Thawra has to elect their own leaders. And that’s the only way, is by election.

02:46

Protestors march

Protestors:  “Hey Beirut! we are with you 'til the death!”

02:56

Man sells face masks to protestors

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Face masks to protect against tear gas will soon have another use. As protestors are warned of a strange new threat looming – coronavirus. The corruption and self-interest they fight against has left Lebanon woefully underprepared for this new crisis.

02:59

Protest leader addresses crowd

Protest leader:  “Corona is spreading in Lebanon! Yesterday, there were problems in the hospitals! They're ignoring it! The Ministry of Health isn’t prepared. Here, now if someone has the coronavirus, we’d be all infected!

TAREK HMAYDANE:  It’s very sad what’s happening.

03:24

Tarek interview

Beirut will get sick like every other cities, but Beirut will survive, because of the people, because of its spirit.

03:43

Protest

03:52

Drone shot over Beirut

Music

04:01

Children chant

Children:  "Thawra! Thawra! (Revolution! Revolution!)

04:06

Food distribution point. Paula stirring soup

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: One group of middle-class revolutionaries has moved away from the barricades and into one of Beirut’s poorest suburbs; a mixed community of locals and Syrian refugees. Led by independent MP, Armenian Christian, Paula Yacoubian.

04:09

PAULA YACOUBIAN: Every Sunday we go to places like this and we cook

04:34

Paula interview in poor area

to give people a hot meal. So today my friends are cooking here in this place. This is one of the poorest areas of Beirut. Never before in my life, not even in the civil war, I’ve seen so much pain, misery, suffering. And for the first time, I hear Lebanese people asking for food.

04:39

Slum shots

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: There’s often no power, and the water is unsafe to drink. Three quarters of the country’s six million people could soon be living in poverty, in a nation that already hosts 1.5 million Syrian and Palestinian refugees.  In just a few months, unemployment’s already doubled and continues to soar. The government is seen as corrupt and incompetent.

05:09

Children queue for soup

PAULA YACOUBIAN: It’s not the duties of an MP, but in Lebanon you have to do it.

05:37

Paula interview

We live as if there’s no state.

05:42

Man hands out masks at soup kitchen

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Today, masks are handed out with the soup. This may be their only protection against the coming contagion.  This would be the last mealtime for the soup kitchen. Fearing they could spread the virus, volunteer support is stopped.

05:47

Beirut skyline/Driving shots/Beirut GVs

Music

06:11

Man at bank/ATMs

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: The political crisis accelerates the economic collapse. Lebanon's currency plummets; banks limit withdrawals, and get some blunt customer feedback.

06:29

Teenagers in building rubble

The problems that are crushing the people start at the top, with a political structure that entrenches the power of the different religious groups by dividing key roles among them.

06:54

GFX Wall projections - Michel Aoun/ Hassan Diab/ Nabih Berri

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Lebanon’s President must always be Maronite Christian. The Prime Minister, Sunni Muslim. The Speaker of Parliament, Shia.

07:07

Teenagers sit in building rubble

Music

07:21

Aerial. Marina

07:33

Ziad on balcony with dog

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter:  Ziad Hayek is an influential insider – a finance expert – who last year was a contender to run the World Bank.

ZIAD HAYEK: This political structure is a cause for corruption,

07:37

Ziad interview

because each leader protects his or her own people. Mostly his people. Therefore, there is no accountability, and without accountability people feel free to do deals.

07:49

Drone shot over South Beirut

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: But the real power in Lebanon, lies in crowded South Beirut, with the Shia movement Hezbollah. A state within a state,

08:04

Hezbollah militia

with its own formidable militia, trained and funded by Iran.

08:18

ZIAD HAYEK: Hezbollah being the most powerful Shia party in Lebanon, and being the only party that is armed, has significant power, and is practically in a position to dictate to the country nowadays what it wants happening in politics. Hezbollah was opposed to the revolution because they feared

08:30

Ziad interview

that if the current system, where they have the most power among the parties and they can control the government, if that system changes, they will be in uncertain territory and this unknown territory scares them.

08:55

Beirut GVs

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: This city is depressed, battle-scarred, exhausted.

09:19

Sunset. Night-time GVs

Music

09:26

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: But even in an economic crisis, it’s still, defiantly, the Middle East’s party capital. 

09:35

Nightclub interiors

Music

09:44

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Saturday night in Beirut’s biggest venue, The Grand Factory.

09:48

TALA MORTADA: The weekend is our time to let go. It's our time to forget. It’s always been like this in a more metaphorical way. But today, that’s really the reality. We come here to just, you know, let loose.

09:54

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Nightclub co-owner, DJ Tala Mortada, is a big supporter of the revolution, who encouraged patrons to get out and protest. 

10:09

TALA MORTADA: There is a little bit of despair.

10:23

Tala interview in nightclub

We’re tired. We’ve been fighting for as long as we’ve lived in this country. Especially the past couple of months, we’ve fought way more, we spoke up way more, we felt like we finally belong in this country.

10:26

Nightclub crowd

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter:  Lebanon has been living beyond its means for years.  The country’s government debt ratio is the third highest on the planet, but the bill is finally due. In March, for the first time, Lebanon couldn’t pay its foreign debt instalments. No one here knows it yet, but this will be the last dance at the Grand Factory; outside, corona is closing in.

10:42

Rima in flamenco class

11:22

There’s more than one way to cut loose in Beirut. By day, Rima Husseini is a lawyer, university lecturer, and a passionate advocate for change. By night, she’s a student of flamenco.

11:27

Rima interview

RIMA HUSSEINI:  What we’ve seen with the movement since the 17^th of October, we’ve found that the corruption has eaten up the Lebanon that we’ve known, and we’re all trying so hard to save it.

11:41

Rima in flamenco class

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Rima has deep connections to Lebanon’s troubled past.

11:50

Photos. Rima and father

Her father in law – co-founder of the Shia movement Amal – brokered the talks that ended the civil war in 1990.  Rima was at his side as translator. 

11:58

Rima and Mayssa dance

Both dance teacher and student lost their fathers to political violence.

12:20

Rima’s father was shot dead walking to the post office. The father of her teacher, Mayssa, was a prominent journalist, targeted because of his investigative reporting.

12:28

RIMA HUSSEINI:  My father was killed by a sniper. Her loss was even more dramatic. Her father was actually assassinated by a car bomb in front of their eyes,

12:46

Rima interview

and that was political assassination.

12:27

Beirut. Night

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Rima says 30 years on from the war, the same old men are still entrenched in power, and destroying her beloved Beirut.

12:59

Rima and Mayssa dance

RIMA HUSSEINI:  It’s not the city that did this to us. It's actually men that have turned it into that. 

13:10

Rima interview

I don’t have any grudge against the country, I have grudge against the people who have taken it hostage, if you want.

13:17

Rima and Mayssa dance

13:24

View of Beirut from mountains/Driving to Bekaa

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Much of Rima’s life is lived beyond Beirut. We head away from the coast, over the mountains to the Bekaa Valley.

13:28

Music

13:42

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter:  During the civil war, the Bekaa was a haven for drug lords and an array of extremists. Today, it’s a Hezbollah stronghold, and leader Hassan Nasrallah looms large.

13:48

Rima driving

RIMA HUSSEINI:  If you connect the dots of the regions, of the poverty, and somebody bring them under one umbrella and offer them services underneath it, why wouldn’t you join?

14:04

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: These are desperate times in a place that was already desperately poor.

14:18

RIMA HUSSEINI: In the Bekaa, nothing was done for the past 10 to 15 years. So, the resentment was boiling even before this crisis. Now it's even worse, because people who could help out are not helping anymore, because they can't help.

14:28

Baalbek

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: In the midst of this troubled valley, in the city of Baalbek, lies Rima’s pride and joy. She owns a national treasure – the Palmyra Hotel.

RIMA HUSSEINI:  This hotel.

14:41

Rima driving

I love the hotel.  Palmyra is the first hotel in the near east. Can you imagine the heritage of this hotel?  Can you imagine the history that's inside?

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter:  The first hotel in the near east? How old is it?

RIMA HUSSEINI:  It was built in 1887.

14:54

Hotel Palmyra

Music

15:13

Rima and Adam into hotel

Rima: “In summer that grows and blooms, it's wisteria, I call it hysteria wisteria, because it's lovely."

15:19

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: It’s a living, creaking history of Lebanon. 

15:58

Adam and Rima tour hotel

Rima says the Palmyra’s doors have never closed in 133 years. Kings, queens, and a long line of presidents once walked the corridors.

15:31

Rima: "Everything is old in this hotel."

15:44

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: French poet and artist Jean Cocteau left his mark.

15:47

Cocteau's room

Rima: "This is Cocteau’s room. He did this, I did all this."

Adam: "Wow! Look at that."

Rima:  "Exactly."

Adam:  "I’m amazed it's lasted, someone hasn’t tried to peel it off and take it away with them.”

15:51

Hotel interiors

Music

16:02

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: These days hotel, guests are few. Rima and her husband bought the hotel 35 years ago.  Now the money has run out, and the Palmyra is struggling to stay open.

16:10

Rima interview

RIMA HUSSEINI: I do believe that it will survive. How and in what manner, I really can’t say. And this is why I keep saying that we are the guardians, if you want, of this place, because this is not for anyone; this is for Baalbek. It is Baalbek. It is for everyone.

16:26

Adam and Rima out onto balcony to view Roman ruins

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: While the economic outlook is bleak… the vista beyond the Palmyra’s front doors remains breathtaking.

16:42

Rima: "Look at it."

16:54

Drone shots of temples

Music

16:55

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: The Roman ruins of Baalbek, one of the great monumental feats of the ancient world.

17:00

Built over two centuries, its three vast temples to the gods Jupiter, Venus and Bacchus have drawn pilgrims for 2,000 years. This really is an incredible place. It should be full of thousands of tourists, but it’s not.

17:11

Adam to camera at temple

Lebanon is burdened by the crushing weight of its history. Not just its ancient history, but its modern history as well. The civil war that nearly destroyed the place ended just 30 years ago. And the compromise deal that solved the conflict ended up empowering the militias that had fought the war. And those militias are still in power today; they're the political parties that run the country. The protesters who are on the streets say the only way to fix it is to get rid of those people who are still in power now, otherwise modern Lebanon will end up a ruin, too.

17:39

Rima at food distribution centre

Behind the hotel, is another of Rima’s projects; a community health clinic that’s been transformed into a food distribution centre.

18:24

Rima with woman

Rima: "We haven’t distributed in Baalbek yet, but this is your food packet. As you don’t have a car  we'll help take it to your place.

18:36

RIMA HUSSEINI:  You can’t imagine the needs, especially these past three or four months.

Rima: “Ghassan, would you deliver this to Abu Ali."

18:46

RIMA HUSSEINI:  Total absence of governmental help, aid or services.

18:53

Rima interview

Really, there’s no money for food. And the other thing is that the little money that you get, you’re spending it on oil for fuel for warmth. It is one of the coldest areas in Lebanon. You are talking – the temperature has reached minus 10 and 11.

18:57

Van drives away

Music

19:15

Baalbek streets

19::23

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: On the streets of Baalbek, everyone struggles.

19:29

Imad walks to get fuel and home again

Imad Awad finally has enough money to buy heating fuel. He lost his job as a painter one year ago. The bills have piled up – for his son’s school, and his wife’s medicine.

19:35

IMAD AWAD: Sometimes we have moments that are far beyond psychological distress. We sleep at night hoping we won’t wake up the next day.

19:56

Imad lights petrol stove

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: With no heating, Imad’s wife and son have moved out.  With power cuts for days at a time, the only reliable heating option is a petrol stove.

20:15

IMAD AWAD:  We don’t want to be rich or to have money. Just enough to sustain our life. Even that seems inaccessible.

20:29

Imad visits wife and son

20:40

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Across town, Imad visits his in-laws’ home to check on his wife Hanin and son Mohammed.

20:45

Staying warm is vital for Hanin, who is in remission from lung cancer. Since Imad lost his job, she can’t afford vital medicine.

20:57

Hamin interview

HANIN:  Sometimes I cough so strongly that I cannot even talk to my son. I’m coughing again and again. So much. I have to take medicine otherwise I can’t be cured.

21:10

Family photos

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: And now there’s another threat to Hanin’s fragile health – coronavirus.

21:22

Family share meal

IMAD AWAD:  Everybody is worried about corona, but here in Baalbek, we’re happy about it. Either we will commit suicide or we'll die from corona, so dying from corona is better for us.

21:33

Empty streets of Beirut

[Call to prayer]

21:44

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Finally, corona strikes Beirut.

21:55

[Call to prayer]

21:57

Street truck spraying bleach

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Drenching the streets in bleach does little to quell a sense of looming crisis. As other nations pump money into their faltering economies, a bankrupt Lebanon can do virtually nothing, except call for a lockdown.

22:12

Empty Martyrs Square

[Call to prayer]

22:32

Adam to camera, Martyrs Square

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: It’s hard to believe that not so long ago this place was the scene of such optimism – vast crowds united – calling for a better Lebanon. Now it’s desolate, sad. The call to prayer to a lonely empty parking lot, really. The wreckage of the revolution – killed by corona virus.

22:43

Can it recover? Well, Beirutis and Lebanese have had almost 50 years’ experience in overcoming adversity. If anyone can do it, they can.  

23:05

Mosque minaret.

Music

23:17

Ambulances and medics lined up

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: From its south Beirut stronghold, Hezbollah exploits the crisis, declaring war on coronavirus. On display, not the usual marching paramilitaries, but a force of 70 ambulances.

23:23

Hezbollah representative: “The objective of the operation is to reassure,

23:39

Hezbollah representative

because people trust Hezbollah, its ability and its serious response.

23:43

Ambulances and medics lined up. Hezbollah spray disinfectant

Music

23:47

ZIAD HAYEK: What they are telegraphing is that they are powerful, and they are telegraphing to their people that we’ll take care of you, we always have taken care of you, we will.

23:55

Ziad interview

They’re telegraphing to the rest of the world and the Israelis, etcetera, that they are very much still in control.

24:06

Tala on rooftop

TALA MORTADA: My mother’s house is right here, and I look at her and say good morning every day and we have our cup of coffee while talking on the phone.

24:15

Views from rooftop

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: It’s now two months since Tala’s club closed. Her horizons have shrunk from nightclub impresario to an apartment-bound life of self-isolation.

24:28

Tala interview

TALA MORTADA: So one week after I saw you guys, the corona pandemic really hit hard in Beirut. We decided to close the club; we thought it would be just for a few weeks.

24:41

Tala on rooftop

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter:  She’s struggling to keep the 170 staff on the books.

24:53

TALA MORTADA:  We’re all going through the same thing in the whole wide world.

24:58

What’s really tough for us is that this will not end when it ends, because right now our country has sunken so low, and it will be very, very hard to come back from that.

25:02

Adam, wearing mask, driving to Baalbek

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: We set off to Baalbek one last time to check in with Rima. She’s retreated here to ride out the pandemic.

Adam: "Rima!

25:23

Adam greets Rima

Great to see you. What do we do? Elbow bump?"

Rima: "Exactly. How are you?"

Adam: " I'm all right; I'm surviving."

Rima: "Good to see you."

Adam: “The place is a bit depressing, though, isn’t it?”

25:39

Rima interview

RIMA HUSSEINI:  I’ve been here before. I mean in 2006 with the Israeli war, and the first three years of the Syrian war,  not to mention what happened in the War, so the emptiness that we feel in the hotel will end. This is the story of the hotel. The story of a place that started as a dream because of those temples, and I think as long as those temples are there, we’re okay.

25:48

Drone shot over temple ruins

Music

26:18

Empty Baalbek streets

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Like Beirut, Baalbek is a ghost town. They know they’re on their own. Beyond a few army checkpoints, the state has no role here. It’s all left to local volunteers.

26:25

Volunteers in car with loudspeaker patrols streets

Volunteer in car:  “You have to stay home. It's mandatory. You must follow all instructions we give you.”

26:46

Rima at home

RIMA HUSSEINI: The worst part in this is that we started off in a very bad place in Lebanon. It’s not really the corona that’s scaring us, it's waking up from the corona. The scary part is when this ends.

26:56

Drone shot. Beirut

Music

27:14

Protestors in cars/Tarek in car

TAREK HMAYDANE: Due to corona they can’t protest in the street. They decided to do a protest by car.

27:19

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: Back in Beirut, Tarek and Revolution TV are finally back on air.

27:27

Tarek filming from car

And today, at last, some good news. Despite dire forecasts of a catastrophe there are fewer than 800 confirmed coronavirus cases, and 24 recorded deaths, in the entire country. For once, Lebanon appears to have dodged a bullet.

TAREK HMAYDANE: Corona is contained,

27:36

Tarek interview

and I think the next step is to go back to the street, and go back to the old days and show them that the revolution is not dead.

27:59

Burning bank

ADAM HARVEY, Reporter: But any euphoria is short lived – and the banks are soon burning. The pandemic has only worsened the economic crisis.

28:09

Rioters smash windows

Lebanon’s currency collapses, triggering hyperinflation, and a new wave of fury.

28:26

Tarek with loudspeaker

The government requests a multi-billion dollar bail out from the International Monetary Fund. But the austerity conditions that will be attached to the loan risks further enraging the mob. The only question is, how badly do the protesters want change, and what are they prepared to sacrifice to get it?

28:38

Protestors/Military with tanks

TAREK HMAYDANE: We want action now. We want to see a result immediately on the streets. For the people. Otherwise? There is no country. There will be no Lebanon. Either civil war or we divide the country. This is the way it's going to be.

29:00

Credits [see below]

Music

29:23

Outpoint after credits

29:45