Costa Brava, Lebanon

Directed by Mounia Akl

Release Year: 2021
Running time: 107
Country: Lebanon
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
Subjects:
$20.97 - Classroom Rights
MSRP: $29.95
$349.00 - With PPR
$499.00 - With DSL
$499.00 - With DSL and PPR
MSRP: $599.00
Screening Request
Directed by: Mounia Akl
Writer: Clara Roquet
Crew: Joe Saade

Costa Brava, Lebanon captures the joys and frustrations of a close-knit family with an intimacy that feels startlingly natural, and sets them against a sharply drawn backdrop of environmental crisis. In the not-so-distant future, the free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in an idyllic mountain home. Without warning, the government starts to build a garbage landfill right outside their fence, intruding on their domestic utopia and bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so does tension in the household, revealing a long-simmering division between those family members who wish to defend or abandon the mountain oasis they have built. Mounia Akl’s stunning feature debut premiered at Venice and won major prizes at the Toronto and BFI London Film Festivals. Her unique gift with actors is evident in the sensitively realized performances she elicits from her cast, which includes award-winning filmmaker Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) and celebrated actor Saleh Bakri (The Band’s Visit, Walid).

Reviews

“Ambitious… smart and sensitive.”

- Austin Consadine, The New York Times
 

“A stellar near-future family drama. A film worth savoring.”

- Andrew Crump, The Playlist
 

"A terrific feature debut… works both as a compelling domestic drama and an elegant political allegory."

- Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
 

"Visually ripe and darkly funny. Akl comes out swinging as the next big thing in Middle Eastern cinema."

- Jude Dry, Indiewire
 

“Nadine Labaki and Saleh Bakri shine. Evokes a sense of encroaching disaster… and the exasperation of one family trying at all costs to hold onto what they’ve built.”

- Jay Weissberg, MIME
 

“A thoughtful and compassionate portrait of a family caught up in an environmental crisis.”

- Lois Alter Mark, Alliance of Women Film Journalists
 

“A masterpiece. Beautiful, soulful and important”

- E. Nina Rothe, MIME
 

"A heartfelt charmer."

- Jessica Kiang, Variety
 

Awards

Winner – Audience Award - BFI London Film Festival 

Winner – NETPAC Award - Toronto International Film Festival

Official Selection – Venice International Film Festival

Official Selection – Toronto International Film Festival 

Official Selection – SFFILM 

 

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