Costa Brava, Lebanon(HKAFF 2021)

In near-future Lebanon, the Badri family lives in their rustic mountain home in order to escape the pollution of the big city. However, the family’s serene existence is threatened when the government announces that a new “green” landfill will be built next to their property. Stress from the impending landfill further aggravates long-suppressed tensions in the family, slowly dismantling the peace they’ve been trying to hold on to for so long. Mounia Akl’s sophisticated and quietly angry domestic drama is a critical examination of the troubles plaguing her country, and its production unexpectedly gained additional relevance when the deadly Beirut ammonium nitrate explosion happened just before filming began in August 2020.