The City That Made Bourdain a Better Filmmaker | Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:01]The Mediterranean Sea itself trembles.

[00:00:04]The ground shakes beneath the wheels of our heavy metal thunder.

[00:00:10]Back in Beirut after all these years.

[00:00:14]The first time I was here did not end well, but it made no difference to me. I love it here.

[00:00:20]In spite of everything, I love it here.

[00:00:43]Nice ride. Woo! It's a good way to see Beirut.

[00:00:47]This is very similar to that place we went to years ago, Baba. This is Rizk.

[00:00:51]This is your, you know, traditional chicken sandwich shawarma. Deep-fried broasted.

[00:00:57]The broasted chicken was this guy's idea. My British-Lebanese friend, born born to be wild, Ramsey Short, who I met back in those bad old days of 2006.

[00:01:09]Apparently, he's in with the Lebanese chapter of the Harley-Davidson group, or HOG for short. So, when you roll into some religiously conservative village on these monster bikes and leather jackets, what's the reaction? Two types. Once, we were greeted with rice from the balconies, like they thought we were like a wedding or something really nice.

[00:01:28]And the other extreme was stones, like at the wheels, like just get out of here. Really? Yeah. I wouldn't throw stones at people on Harleys.

[00:01:38]Oh, look at this. Let's dig in. That's good. And that'll work.

[00:01:45]Yeah, this is a famous neighborhood of the city. This area It was central during the civil war, this place. The sheer volume of fire that was poured into some of these buildings is absolutely unbelievable. So much fire and so many battles happened in the same place over >> over and over and over and over again.

[00:02:02]Clearly. I notice this every time someone visiting the city they just point at them. Oh, look at that.

[00:02:10]But, you know, we don't see them anymore.

[00:02:13]We just pass by them.

[00:02:22]Beirut, seemingly the world in miniature.

[00:02:26]18 religious sects recognized.

[00:02:29]More than 2 million Christians over a million and a half Shiites a million and a half Sunni nearly 500,000 Palestinians and now by some estimates as many as 2 million Syrians all living and somehow getting along, kind of, in a country the size of Connecticut.

[00:02:55]But, along its borders, the country has what you might call serious neighbor issues.

[00:03:01]ISIS in Syria threatening to expand its so-called caliphate into Lebanon.

[00:03:06]ISIS in many ways is something we've never really seen before. A really large, well-organized, well-equipped terrorist army.

[00:03:15]Lebanon's been absorbing refugees for nearly 2 years now. The country simply can't take any more. A quarter of Lebanon's population is now Syrian. How does the equipment in the US taking in 83 million Syrians?

[00:03:31]This could be spiraling and as you said, the real fear is the violence cross the border in Syria's civil war now spilling over into an already fragile neighbor, Lebanon.

[00:03:45]Beirut struggled to put a lid on the simmering sectarian tensions.

[00:03:56]>> AFTERMATH OF THAT BOMBING IN Beirut as well as some of the clashes THAT TOOK PLACE.

[00:04:06]EXCHANGE OF GUNFIRE BETWEEN Sunni and Shia, two Palestinian brothers were shot.

[00:04:25]Here, block by block, you see the scars from the 15-year civil war that only ended in the '90s.

[00:04:33]But also, nightclubs, discos, beaches, bikinis, where much of the Arab world comes to let their hair down. It is an incongruous mix.

[00:04:46]All of this is playing into people's fears. The violence is just beginning.

[00:05:21]What do you The Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood has long been the home to principally Palestinian refugees, but more recently, it's become a refuge for Syrians fleeing the barrel bombs of President Assad on one hand and the predations of ISIS on the other.

[00:05:45]The camp saw heavy fighting, shelling, and outright massacres during the religious conflict known as the Lebanese Civil War.

[00:05:52]Everywhere you see posters representing a full menu of political factions and affiliations from Assad loyalists to the PLO to every flavor of extremist. It's either a jihad, a victory, or martyrdom.

[00:06:08]Do you know of any other place in the region where all of these groups are coexisting within a confined space?

[00:06:16]It is stunning to be walking down a street with high heels, short skirts, uh and vast amounts of red wine flowing, and then drive straight into an extraordinarily conservative, predominantly Shiite district, you know, the Hezbollah district, which is effectively run by what the US calls a terrorist organization. And it's kind of it is kind of mind-blowing. I am not a geopolitical expert. And as much time as I've spent in this part of the world, I've spent nowhere near the amount of time this guy has. Nick Payton Walsh, CNN senior international correspondent.

[00:06:45]Most of the groups here are now more terrified of those sort of crazy Islamist radicals across the border in Syria uh than they ever have been of each other.

[00:06:53]What would you call this neighborhood?

[00:06:55]What is it? I mean, it's now one of the kind of very mixed refugee areas that Beirut has. Close to 2 million people from Syria alone.

[00:07:02]>> Yeah. That's a hell of a lot to be absorbed by a tiny little nation of what, 4.5 million? It's just loads of people, far too many people with nowhere to go. You see it in how the cell phones don't sometimes work the way they should, how people have to ship water into their own homes. That's part of bad infrastructure, but it's also just the sheer demand on resources.

[00:07:28]We'll follow you. Okay. We are the first time in the in the history.

[00:07:32]I've never seen that leads American.

[00:07:34]That's nice. Don't let the neighbors know about that. Yes.

[00:07:39]In Syria, Mr. Najarian was an English teacher.

[00:07:42]Needless to say, he had at one time a better life back there. I came from Syria after the civil war was started there.

[00:07:50]>> Yeah.

[00:07:51]We know Lebanon has many many problems, sectarian problems, and we don't want to add more problems for those people. But what can we do?

[00:08:01]We live here in this camp. Imagine the situation here.

[00:08:05]It is unbearable.

[00:08:17]He is married, by the way, and he has three kids.

[00:08:21]In spite of his wound, he works, you know, on construction.

[00:08:28]His family built this wall in order to protect us from the rats.

[00:08:34]Yes.

[00:08:36]These children need medical operation, but this family can't pay for those operation because they are very expensive.

[00:08:44]They are waiting for Godot. They wait for nothing.

[00:08:48]They wait for the help of God.

[00:08:50]Straining under the weight of all these unasked-for guests, the Lebanese government has begun making it very difficult for them.

[00:08:58]He doesn't work only because he doesn't have an official residence, so he can't leave the camp.

[00:09:05]Otherwise, he will be arrested, you know.

[00:09:08]Being stopped at any of the city's ubiquitous military checkpoints could mean a one-way ticket back to Syria.

[00:09:15]Trapped, unable to work, they exist invisibly on the margins of society. No photos here.

[00:09:22]This is a military area. We don't want to get involved in any problem.

[00:09:34]Syrian food? This is Syrian. It is called the seven countries.

[00:09:40]It consists of many kinds of vegetables.

[00:09:43]Mhm.

[00:09:44]Seven kinds of food.

[00:09:48]Mhm.

[00:09:49]Palestinians in Syria, most of them are well-educated. Doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers. But here now, it's the opposite, right? Here in Lebanon, even if you were a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher, you can work only in the camp.

[00:10:09]We don't know how to go, where to go.

[00:10:12]To go back to Syria?

[00:10:14]Can't. No can do. To To cross the sea?

[00:10:17]Can't. Suppose that the Lebanese authority collect us and they throw us away to Syria. What is going to happen?

[00:10:26]We have no area in the world.

[00:10:29]We have no place in this universe.

[00:10:32]We belong to nowhere.

[00:10:36]Nowhere.

[00:10:46]Welcome not in Lebanon.

[00:10:57]Once known as the Paris of the Middle East, Beirut still clings to its glamorous 1960s image.

[00:11:04]A chic tourist destination where you can famously ski and go to the beach all in the same day.

[00:11:12]Walking the Corniche, it's easy to forget for a moment anyway what's going on not far from here.

[00:11:54]>> All the people who live here in this across they prefer to spend the Sunday outside their houses and this is one of their traditional places.

[00:12:03]This is the way I live all my life.

[00:12:06]Moe is a local security specialist on assignment to keep well, me and my crew safe from harm. He lives with his daughter Bushra and his family in Ras Beirut, a mixed neighborhood of Christians, Muslims, and Druze. Little oil in the middle as I recall, yes?

[00:12:21]>> Yes.

[00:12:22]Ah, so good.

[00:12:31]Very good fish.

[00:12:34]Ah, I miss this country. I really did.

[00:12:37]You have been here before? This is my third time. Oh. My first time was 2006.

[00:12:43]Oh. We came here, we had two perfect days, and then the war broke out.

[00:12:50]During my first trip here in 2006, Hezbollah guerrillas killed three Israeli soldiers and captured two others in a cross-border raid.

[00:12:58]In the 34-day war that followed, much of Beirut was heavily pounded by bombs and naval artillery.

[00:13:05]But I fell in love with this city under the worst possible situation. You have this really extraordinary mix of religions and people. How is that? Why?

[00:13:14]What's so special about it? Why? Of course, somebody on Friday go to pray, somebody on Sunday go to pray.

[00:13:21]But they go to the same restaurant, have the same food, have the same drink.

[00:13:26]They have the same tradition. There is no place better than Lebanon. You have everything. People are friendly, beautiful, fantastic. It is a democracy here. Of course, we have choice to sit down and talk. I like this, I don't like this.

[00:13:43]So, what's it look like now?

[00:13:47]Yanni, we look like we are 2 months before 2006. Oh, wow, that's not good.

[00:13:55]Tension is a little bit high, but the people they are very happy. We are very happy. I go with my family outside. I mean, I was watching the news last night at the hotel. It is genuinely terrifying. This is Lebanon. It's raining today, tomorrow is sunny. It's happening all the time. We get used to it. You get used to it.

[00:14:14]Are you concerned or optimistic? No, I'm optimistic. Yeah. Do your friends feel the same way?

[00:14:21]Um not really, not all. You know, your friends are less optimistic. Yeah. We have only one good neighbor. It don't affect us. Yeah. It help us all the time. It's the sea.

[00:14:31]We bring the fish and we have fish.

[00:14:35]And he never get upset from us.

[00:14:38]Inshallah. Inshallah.

[00:14:54]So, you basically break it down.

[00:15:05]And the song is sound.

[00:15:13]And you tell me what's right.

[00:15:22]Take me to the restroom.

[00:16:13]>> Now I'm back. We're here. Wud yakasha, we are back in the hiz house. This >> here, too? Yeah, this is Radio Beirut.

[00:16:24]It is.

[00:16:25]Right. Yes. Yes, I think it is. And round glasses, vintage clothing, and neck beards. It appears the Brooklyn strain has spread even to Beirut. Radio Beirut, live and direct from >> It is. With CNN and everything. CNN has become the most trusted name in news.

[00:16:43]Same way a broken clock is trusted to be right twice a day. CNN changed their slogan from "This is CNN" to "At least it's not Fox News." Yes, sir.

[00:16:55]How is it possible this mix of religions, of cultures You know, geographically how it is. Beirut is so tiny. You got mountains, you got the sea. We're surrounded. And then there's so many factions that you have to deal with everybody. I'm going to turkey him in this [ __ ] That's halal as it gets.

[00:17:11]Now pass me the lettuce, stack up a till I sandwich this [ __ ] Now where is the bread? Where is the kibbeh? Where's 80% of the big and hummus while a small percentage get to eat there. Where is the oil? Where is the wealth? Syrian folks they easy and chill. They needed not know, just needed some help. Give them the choice >> Syrian Filipino rapper Chino. Monday is hip-hop and Radio Beirut. Hey, Radio Beirut is like a really awesome place where you're slide bands playing all week long. We created a platform for MCs to try their skills in front of people without the prejudice, without the judgements and although we do judge. We don't make fun of them.

[00:17:43]Green fields and dream fields are copper who feels then I'm making magic like my name was Copperfield. Lebanese freestyle legend Hussein, aka Double A, the Preacherman.

[00:17:53]You were You were arrested?

[00:17:55]Yeah, yeah.

[00:17:57]That's last normal. That's not the first time it happened. For what? Basically I was profiled. Like if there's an explosion, oh, the big dude with the beard was bald. That's him. That's him.

[00:18:05]He did it. We're 100% sure. These are beard related issues. Yeah.

[00:18:09]Yeah. Let's talk about hip-hop. That's the glue that binds us. What is it about hip-hop? I see it like this. I mean, a lot of people do mawwals in Arabic it's called the mawwalen which is a traditional rhyming scheme in which they speak about their problems, about their beefs. It's in our core to be po- We are poets. We come from like a background where you have governments that are dictators and we can't really voice anything. These politicians can't believe them cuz they're getting led on to the slaughter while this monster trying to keep the lid on. Pressure makes us real but it blows the lid off and we're raw, we're raw, we're raw.

[00:18:42]We're trying to find our own identity.

[00:18:44]We don't want to be like our ancestors always fighting each other. Like he's Christian, he's Shia, I'm Syrian Sunni.

[00:18:50]That's nothing, you know, we don't even we don't even mention that when we're on stage. So I'm on my own now. To hell with the world, the universe is my home now. Check it.

[00:19:19]>> Afternoon in Beirut, and the Hafez family, like many others across the city, prepares dinner.

[00:19:33]Extraordinary spread of food. Yeah.

[00:19:35]Chicken burgers.

[00:19:38]All this food you see, and my son, he's crying because he want to go to Burger King.

[00:19:43]He wants some chicken burger from Burger King.

[00:19:47]Well, thank you so much for for having me in your home. This is spicy potato.

[00:19:52]We call it batata harra. Deep fried potato with red pepper, green chili, coriander, garlic, and lemon juice.

[00:20:01]And this is kibbeh nayeh, which is raw meat, lamb, fresh mint, spring onion.

[00:20:07]Mix it all together.

[00:20:09]And this is as a main course. It's called moussaka. Minced meat, baked aubergine, green and red pepper, and chickpeas, and tomato and tomato paste.

[00:20:23]Please, help yourself. Thank you.

[00:20:26]I was in Beirut in 2006. This neighborhood was hit very hard. Yeah.

[00:20:32]>> Were you here at that time? Yeah.

[00:20:34]It was a disaster. Why this neighborhood?

[00:20:37]Because the people in this area, 99% they support Hezbollah.

[00:20:47]As Israel buries its dead from a surprise Hezbollah missile strike, and the radical Shiite group celebrates a victory, the rhetoric of both sides is at a fever pitch right now.

[00:21:04]It is the deadliest Hezbollah attack against Israeli forces since the two sides went to war in 2006.

[00:21:12]Hezbollah means the party of God.

[00:21:15]They are a Shia military political organization lavishly supported by Iran.

[00:21:21]The party is more powerful, more effective on the ground than the Lebanese Army.

[00:21:27]The United States officially designates them a terrorist organization.

[00:21:31]In 1983, they did this.

[00:21:34]The US Embassy bombing.

[00:21:38]And this, the Marine barracks at Beirut's airport. 299 United States and French servicemen were killed.

[00:21:49]All these people are Hezbollah.

[00:21:53]Please put it down now.

[00:22:00]They are dangerous. They are well-funded. And whatever else they may be, they are not stupid.

[00:22:08]In 2006, I have two sisters that lost their home. Hezbollah take care of them.

[00:22:13]Here in Dahiyeh, everybody support Hezbollah, even the people who they are not religious, for one reason, because they feel protected by them. My host's support for Hezbollah, typical of the Dahiyeh neighborhood in South Beirut, is staunch.

[00:22:28]Before Hezbollah, Lebanese people they were always scared of Israel. Now when you say Israel, you say ah.

[00:22:35]We don't care. In the early days, Hezbollah used tactics that just about anyone would call terrorism.

[00:22:44]When is it permissible morally to use a a car bomb or using civilian targets?

[00:22:50]For me? For you. I'm against killing.

[00:22:54]Against killing anybody, even Israel.

[00:22:56]This person who I'm going to kill in car bomb or whatever, doesn't he has family?

[00:23:01]What's the most important thing happening in the world today that needs to be resolved for things to be better?

[00:23:07]ISIS. ISIS is number one. Number one.

[00:23:10]They killed hundreds and thousands of Shia. They are devils. They are against everything like everything on the on on on the earth they are against.

[00:23:19]Recently, Hezbollah has become heavily involved in the war in Syria in defense of the Assad regime.

[00:23:26]Complicating matters and uncomfortably enough, they are probably the best organized, best equipped, most serious obstacle to ISIS and Al-Qaeda in the area. Most of the villages in the east of Lebanon, they are Christian and they are Sunni. Right. If if Hezbollah wasn't there, it was no more Christian in that area.

[00:23:50]This is only reason I I I got I got the gun. This This is only reason for. Just to protect my children and my wife.

[00:23:58]20 years, 30 years? Yeah.

[00:24:01]Will things be better?

[00:24:03]I hope so.

[00:24:04]I hope not 20 years and 30 years. I hope now. Next year things goes better.

[00:24:12]I hate war.

[00:25:06]>> Hello. Hi, I'm Adam. Tony. I'm Rawane.

[00:25:08]It's very nice to meet >> doing this. This feels very formal.

[00:25:12]But it's not, so please relax. I am relaxed.

[00:25:16]Okay, good. Can I get my beer? By all means, yes, please.

[00:25:21]Lots of people come here. They're mostly musicians and artistic people. Lots of jamming happens here. It's like more of a family hanging out. This cafe is a typical Beirut establishment with a clientele from Lebanon, from Syria, and any number of other countries.

[00:25:40]The owners are both Lebanese and Syrian and acutely aware of the tricky political realities with which they must live. They were concerned about us filming here and wanted us to understand clearly that the cafe has no political affiliation and that the opinions of this young lady, Rawane, are not that of the cafe or necessarily even the clientele. You're born and bred Syrian?

[00:26:02]>> I was, yes. I was born and brought up in Syria, Damascus.

[00:26:07]One night, 3:00 a.m., the army entered our house and I found them in my bedroom looking for the Free Syrian Army.

[00:26:16]My dad knew he couldn't protect us because he was old. 3 hours later, we decided to leave. So, we came to Beirut.

[00:26:25]Oh. Oh.

[00:26:26]Oh, thank you.

[00:26:28]We always eat here. Grape leaves is my favorite food. I saw you went for that first.

[00:26:32]>> Yeah.

[00:26:34]It's delicious. Yeah, it is.

[00:26:36]We come here a lot and we talk a lot about Syria. We talk about our visa issues most of the time. Actually, now I have 4 months left and I really have no idea what am I going to do. What do you think? Will they renew your visa?

[00:26:51]So far, I don't think so. Do they arrest you? Do they take you to the border and kick you over the other side? What What How does it Send you back to Syria.

[00:27:01]What happens if you go back to Syria?

[00:27:04]Most probably die on the way or some people get arrested or be taken to the army.

[00:27:12]How different is Damascus from Beirut?

[00:27:15]>> Oh, it's really really different. In Damascus, I was always afraid of the government. Some people died because they cursed the president.

[00:27:24]I left Syria and I found hope here and I screamed in the streets cursing all politicians and everything.

[00:27:34]It's all right. Nobody's going to come and arrest you. Mhm. I really love this place with all my heart.

[00:27:40]Is all of the chaos and the violence and worth it for change? Is that worth dying for?

[00:27:47]I mean, you things were there was order when you grew up.

[00:27:51]There was order. Yes, there was.

[00:27:54]No freedom, but but order. Would you go back to that?

[00:27:59]I don't think that there is anything worthy in the world of a human blood.

[00:28:06]There is nothing more important than human being. You'd never be able to yell out loud. You'd never be able to do do the things you're doing now.

[00:28:14]You'd go back.

[00:28:15]>> I was alive. You were alive. Lots of people were alive as well.

[00:28:31]Will this ever end?

[00:28:36]Aleppo One day after a brazen shocking daylight bombing in Lebanon, there's seeing widespread anger and finger pointing.

[00:28:45]This blast has set off a tide of civil unrest in Lebanon.

[00:29:02]Good to see how you been.

[00:29:03]>> Kids, I've been all right. I've been well. Where better for capitalist imperialist pig dogs like Ramsey and myself to spend the last evening in Beirut than Abu Eli? It was opened by a guy called Naya. He was an atheist member of the Lebanese Communist Party.

[00:29:18]A communist theme bar located in a housing block. What is this? Do you know what? I'm not sure. It's been put in front of us.

[00:29:26]Well, we should probably drink it. Yeah, let's do it. Why not?

[00:29:36]Vodka. Vodka.

[00:29:38]You know, I actually had somebody who lives here tell me, "Oh, yeah, this place is great. Just don't stay here for longer than a month." Yeah. And I was like, What?

[00:29:46]Yeah, yeah, you're trying to kill us, man.

[00:29:48]And Who is this man? And I He's trying to hurt us. Cheers.

[00:29:55]After more than a few indigenous beverages, oh, arak. Well, now we're talking. Cheers.

[00:30:01]Enter Ernesto. Ernesto, hey, hey, Tony.

[00:30:06]I got something for you. Oh, yeah?

[00:30:08]It's a Cuban cigar. In the words of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, let's get the party started.

[00:30:14]Or was that Rick >> James? Ernesto is the son of the owner of this bar. I know.

[00:30:19]This is my mom, and she made some shanklish here. Oh. Shanklish is the is the cheese. It's kind of rotten cheese.

[00:30:28]Here we go.

[00:30:28]Cheers.

[00:30:30]I called my dad. Yeah. I told him there's a guy called Tony. CNN said, "I don't watch CNN."

[00:30:37]And then I told him, "But he's a cool guy. He wants to make the best food for you." This is some of the best kibbeh nayeh in Beirut.

[00:30:44]>> The lamb and spices. Oh man, that's good.

[00:30:50]I put a little Google action.

[00:30:52]ISIS is coming now. Are we picking up a gun or not? I pick a gun. Yeah, we will fight these people. No, I'm not drinking. No, no, we have to have it.

[00:31:01]Nicks nabsack.

[00:31:02]>> Yeah, nicks up.

[00:31:05]Dude, I seem to remember Mom at one point whipping out some kind of automatic weapon. All right, here you go, big boy.

[00:31:11]>> I will I will take this up in arms and I will fight. Let me tell you how you fight.

[00:31:15]>> I will And then the mirror ball descended from the ceiling, Bootsy Collins came on over the sound system, and the rest is a fog.

[00:31:23]Let's first have a cheers.

[00:31:27]Nicks nabsack.

[00:31:29]This is the country with the worst neighbor problems in the world. It's amazing that it persists.

[00:31:34]>> I've been around, and I've seen places.

[00:31:37]This place the world's fine.

[00:31:41]I think so, too.

[00:31:44]Here's to Tony, man.

[00:31:57]Beirut, everybody should come here.

[00:32:01]Everyone should see how complicated, how deeply troubled, and yet at the same time, beautiful and awesome the world can be.

[00:32:10]Everyone should experience, even as the clouds gather, what's at stake, what could be lost, what's still here. And never let that hope go.