DIRTY DIFFICULT DANGEROUS
Genre
Drama
Running time
83 minutes
Year
2021
Language
Arabic
Subtitle
English
Country
France, Italy, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Qatar
Director
Wissam Charaf
Bio
Producer
Charlotte Vincent, Katia Khazak, Pierre Sarraf
Cast
Clara Couturet, Ziad Jallad, Darina Al Joundi, Rifaat Tarabay
Scriptwriter
Wissam Charaf, Mariette Désert, Hala Dabaji
Deadpan humour may not be the first thing we associate with stories about doomed love or struggling refugees, but director Wissam Charaf’s second feature – winner of the Europa Cinemas Prize in Venice this year - is imbued with a wry sense of human absurdity. Ahmed (Ziad Jallad) fled from Syria to survive on the streets of Beirut by selling scrap metal. Mehdia (Clara Couturet) is Ethiopian, working as a housekeeper for an elderly middle-class couple who leave her in no doubt as to how expendable she is; nevertheless, she is a buoyant spirit, determined to find a better life together with Ali. Getting in the way of their love story is the legacy of an old war wound, a mysterious infestation of metal filings that Ali keeps shedding, turning him into a sickly version of the Tin Man. Funny and serious by unexpected turns, Charaf’s film is full of stylistic surprises.
This film is supported by the Red Sea Fund.
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