Costa Brava, Lebanon

62nd TIFF: Greek Premiere

The free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in the utopic mountain home they have built. But unexpectedly, a garbage landfill is built right outside their fence, bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so do tensions between leaving or resisting, threatening their idyllic home and family unity. A highly anticipated film articulating with a darkly comic commentary on the realities of modern-day Lebanon.

Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Mounia Akl

Script: Mounia Akl, Clara Roquet

Cinematography: Joe Saade

Editing: Carlos Marques-Marcet, Cyril Aris

Sound: Rana Eid, Peter Albrechtsen, Rawad Hobeika

Music: Nathan Larson

Actors: Nadine Labaki, Saleh Bakri, Nadia Charbel, Ceana Restom, Yumna Marwan, Liliane Chacar Khoury, François Nour

Production: Abbout Productions

Producers: Myriam Sassine, Georges Schoucair, Jeff Skoll, Anikah McLaren, Fouad Mikati, Candice Abela Mikati, Karam Abulhusn, Monique Dib, Lara El Khoury, Elie Tabet, Harriet Harper Jones (executive producers)

Co-production: Cinema Defacto, Lastor Media, Fox in the Snow Films, Snowglobe, Barentsfilm, Gaïjin

Co-producers: Sophie Erbs, Sergi Moreno, Olivier Guerpillon, Ingrid Lill Høgtun, Katrin Pors, Tom Dercourt, Tono Folguera, Eva Jakobsen, Mikkel Jersin, Joakim Rang Strand

Costumes: Beatrice Harb

Production Design: Thomas Bremer, Issa Kandil

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: Lebanon, France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Qatar

Production Year: 2021

Duration: 108'

Contact: mk2

Mounia Akl

Mounia Akl is an award-winning Lebanese filmmaker. Her short film Submarine (2016) was in the Official Selection of the 69th Cannes Film Festival (Cinéfondation), SXSW, TIFF, and Dubai Film Festival where it won the Muhr Jury Prize. In 2017, Mounia took part in the Lebanon Factory and co-directed the short film El Gran Libano which opened Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and screened at BFI London among others. Costa Brava, Lebanon was developed during the Cannes’ Cinéfondation Residency. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from ALBA and an MFA in Directing from Columbia University. She has taught film directing at the NHSI Film Summer Institute at Northwestern University, Chicago.