Dirty Difficult Dangerous

Name: Dirty Difficult Dangerous
Genre: Drama
Released: 2021
Duration: 90 min

Director: Wissam Charaf

Rights:

Highlights

Winner of the Europa Cinemas Award at the Venice International Film Festival
Supported by the Italian Ministry for Culture, the French-Speaking Film Fund - OIF, the Doha Film Institute, and the CNC
The director’s first feature film was selected at the ACID section of the Cannes Film Festival

2021/ France90 min/ Drama

SYNOPSIS

The film follows Ahmed — a Syrian refugee roaming the streets of Beirut searching for metal objects to be recycled who thought he’d find love with Mehdia, an Ethiopian domestic.
However, in this city, such a story seems almost impossible. Will the couple be able to reclaim their freedom despite Ahmed’s body slowly turning to metal due to a mysterious illness?

CAST

Clara Couturet
Ziad Jallad
Rifaat Tarabay
Darina Al-Joundi

CREW

Screenwriters: Wissam Charaf, Hala Dabaji, and Mariette Désert
DOP: Martin Rit
Editor: Clémence Diard

Production Company(ies)

Aurora Films

Producer(s)

Charlotte Vincent, Pierre Sarraf

Venice International Film Festival, Italy

Filmfest Hamburg, Germany

Red Sea International Film Festival, Saudi Arabia

Hong Kong Asian Film Festival, Hong Kong

Thessaloniki Film Festival, Greece

Filmfest Hamburg, Germany

Entrevues Belfort Film Festival, France

Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, France

Qisah International Film Festival, UK

Cinemamed Cinema Mediterraneen Bruxelles, Belgium

Kolkata International Film Festival, India

Pune International Film Festival, India

Marseille CINEVERSE Film Festival, France

Lunel Film Festival, France

Panorama of Cinemas of the Maghreb and the Middle East, France

Arabesque Films Festival, Scotland

Palm Springs International Film Festival, US

Europa Cinemas Award, Venice International Film Festival

Audience Award in the Feature Film Category, Entrevues Film Festival

MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award, Palm Springs International Film Festival

Critics Award - Special Mention, Hamburg Film Festival

Reviews

Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
Matthew Joseph Jenner, International Cinephile Society
E. Nina Rothe, Moving Image Middle East
Allan Hunter - Screen Daily
Panos Kotzathanasis - Asian Movie Pulse
Gautaman Bhaskaran - Arab News
Destination KSA

Quotes

"The film’s intentionally minimalist tone and set design, and its occasionally incredible adventures... lend charm and a fabled air to a work which prioritizes restrained simplicity and unpretentious freshness in a complicated quest for freedom."
Fabien Lemercier — Cineuropa

“DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS is a beautifully crafted film that has echoes of many of the great magical realists of the past embedded deeply in its fabric.”
Matthew Joseph Jenner — International Cinephile Society

"Wissam Charaf's second feature tells the touchingly beautiful story of two human beings who are condemned to carry each other throughout their struggling existence and yet whose paradise lies within one another and the pure love they carry in their burdened hearts."

E. Nina Rothe — Moving Image Middle East

"Star-crossed lovers confront mounting obstacles to their happiness in Wissam Charaf's slight but intermittently charming DIRTY DIFFICULT DANGEROUS. A lightweight approach to some serious issues creates an awkward mix in places but, at its best, the film has the lugubrious air of an Aki Kaurismaki film."
Allan Hunter — Screen Daily

"Wissam Charaf manages a truly difficult feat with his film: To present two rather serious issues — the refugees and how the system with domestic helpers from abroad works through an approach that is occasionally hilarious, without… stripping the subjects from their significance nor hiding the despair both involve."
Panos Kotzathanasis — Asian Movie Pulse

"The movie is very powerful with strong visuals, extraordinary dialogue, and impeccable acting [that makes] us believe what [the characters] are going through."
Destination KSA

"A wondrous score with the right blend of traditional Levantine music and Ethiopian chanting gives the movie the right kind of mood to let it fly above the squalor of its setting and transform into an unforgettable love story."
Gautaman Bhaskaran — Arab News

"Charaf took a different look at Lebanese reality and according to his assessment of it – A look that has never been in this form in Lebanese cinema."
Hovic Havisham