As civil emergencies progress, few have the symbolic clarity of a garbage crisis. They are ugly. They stink. They mean dysfunction, spoilage and toxicity in a way that does not require sorting.
These are also effective shortcuts to dramatic bitterness, as Lebanese director Mounia Acre shows in her ambitious first feature, Costa Brava, Lebanon.But if it sounds like a simple metaphor, blame history: Beirut Suffocate garbage for years — Includes, but is not limited to, the types you can put in your bag.
Located in the near future dystopia, which is indistinguishable from the present, the setting of this movie is less imaginative than cynicalism, and the more changes it has, the more it will remain the same.Garbage Still a problem.. The leader is still corrupt.
Perhaps the situation can be different in the countryside where a family is struggling to maintain off-the-grid Eden. A few years ago, the famous singer Souraya (Nadine Rabaki) was disillusioned and fled there to create her family with her husband Warid (Sale Bakri), her injured former activist. I did. But after government seizures literally bring trash to their doors, the vulnerabilities of their small ecosystems become apparent.
Souraya wonders if Beirut was really terrible. Their teenage daughter (Nadia Sharbel) dreams of a boy and a bigger world. Their other daughters (Ceana and Geana Restom) are too young to give up on their dad, but she is also traumatized by the obsessive-compulsive delusion that counting can control the confusion around her. Absorbed.
The paradise these characters seek could be the Spanish coast of the title. Akl has produced smart and delicate films, even if a more complete sense of their humanity can be lost in the ideas they offer.
Costa Brava, Lebanon
Unrated. Arabic with subtitles. Execution time: 1 hour and 46 minutes. At the theater.
