Amazon Prime’s ‘Expats’ was set and filmed in Hong Kong. But it’s not being shown there

Amazon Prime’s new drama series “Expats,” starring Nicole Kidman, is currently unavailable to watch in Hong Kong despite being set and partly filmed in the city.

Amazon Prime’s new drama series “Expats,” starring Nicole Kidman, is currently unavailable to watch in Hong Kong despite being set and partly filmed in the city. The drama largely centers around Kidman’s character, Margaret, an American living in Hong Kong in 2014, when months-long pro-democracy protests swept the city — a topic covered in a forthcoming episode of the series, according to its director. Named for the umbrellas used by demonstrators to shield themselves from police pepper spray, the Umbrella Movement saw Hong Kong’s financial district immobilized for 79 days in 2014 by protesters calling for universal suffrage in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Those calls were dismissed by authorities and a crackdown on dissent has transformed Hong Kong in the decade since — especially since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020 following nearly a year of renewed anti-government protests that roiled the city. Critics say the national security law has wiped out opposition to the government and curtailed political freedoms in the once outspoken city. The Hong Kong government has repeatedly denied the legislation is suppressing freedoms and insisted the law has “restored stability” to the city following the 2019 protests. In 2021, Hong Kong passed a film censorship law to “safeguard national security,” in a move critics said would curb creativity in its world famous movie industry and further reduce freedoms.