Graffiti on ‘Homeland’ Becomes Act of Subversion
David Rising
The Associated Press
October 15, 2015
BERLIN— “Homeland” star Claire Danes walks through a narrow alley in Lebanon in the latest episode of Showtime’s hit show, and passes a wall sprayed with graffiti in Arabic.
Producers had asked for something generic — they suggested “Muhammad is the greatest” — to give the feel of a Hezbollah-run refugee camp. But the group of three artists hired for the job decided to make a statement.
The message that was seen by more than a million viewers when the episode aired in the U.S. on Sunday was: “Homeland is racist.”
The scene was actually filmed this summer in Berlin, but the group, calling itself “The Arabian Street Artists” — the name itself a tongue-in-cheek jab at the initial solicitation from “Homeland” producers for the set work — kept their actions quiet until the episode was shown.