‘Costa Brava, Lebanon’ Scores North American Sale to Kino Lorber
variety.comNick Vivarelli International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to first-time Lebanese director Mounia Akl’s timely drama “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” which launched positively last year from Venice.“Costa Brava” provides an acerbic take on Lebanon’s waste management crisis and its turbulent political landscape and combines the country’s strife with the global climate crisis.
The darkly comic drama pairs Oscar-nominated Lebanese star and filmmaker Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum”) and Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“The Band’s Visit”) as a couple who has moved from Beirut to live idyllically in the mountains, until one day the government decides to build a garbage landfill right beside their house.
After bowing from Venice “Costa Brava” segued to the Toronto and London fests, where it won prizes. The pic’s production team boasts about it being the first feature in the Arab region to implement green measures on set, with strict sustainability protocols about recycling, water use, electricity conservation, and reduced waste and carbon emissions.
Their goal being to create a green production protocol for future productions in the region. Co-written by Akl and Clara Roquet, “Costa Brava” is lead-produced by Myriam Sassine and Georges Schoucair for Beirut-based Abbout Productions.
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