We knew going into the Venice Film Festival that we needed to watch Wissam Charaf's Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous -- an unorthodox love story featuring an unlikely pair of modern Romeo and Juliet from the Lebanese-French filmmaker. It turned out all we hoped it would be and more and the film was just awarded the Europa Cinemas Label in Venice.
The Europa Cinemas Label is awarded to films produced and co-produced in Europe. The Label was created by a network of high-caliber European exhibitors, with the support of the EU’s MEDIA Programme. It consists of a financial contribution towards distribution and promotion, as well as a guarantee for the winning film that it will be shown in the cinemas belonging to the network.
In receiving the Label, Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous will benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programming schedule.
This year's jury consisted of Michèle Creemers for Cinecenter, in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Marco Fortunato for Cinemazero, in Pordenone, Italy; Hristo Hristozov for Dom na Kinoto, in Sofia, Bulgaria and Zacharias Ioannidis-Varvaressos for Cine Paradisos, in Korydallos, Greece.
Regarding the chosen film, the jury issued the following statement: “Wissam Charaf’s Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous is a delight – a very original and surprisingly uplifting film, and our unanimous choice as the winner of the Europa Cinemas Label here in Venice. Yes it deals with many of the tragic issues that confront us all – war, refugees, trafficking – but Charaf comes up with a love story that even has strong fairy tale elements. Set in Beirut and on the Lebanese/Syrian border, we follow the heartening relationship between an Ethiopian girl and a Syrian man. There is a lightness of touch here – a pleasing lack of lecturing and some darkly funny moments. The film will give audiences a real sense of hope born from courage, and we feel strongly that it will appeal well beyond arthouse audiences across Europe.”
You can read Nina's review of the film here.
The film is sold internationally by Intramovies, and is produced by Charlotte Vincent, Katia Khazak, with Marco Valerio Fusco, Micaela Fusco and Pierre Saraf as Co-Producers. The film is an Aurora Films production, co-produced by Intramovies and Né à Beyrouth Films.
The screenplay for Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous is by Wissam Charaf, Mariette Désert and Hala Dabaji; cinematography is by Martin Rit; with editing by Clémence Diard; music by Zeid Hamdan, costumes by Thomas Marini, and sound by Pierre Bompey. The cast features Clara Couturet, Ziad Jallad, as the two lovers, with Rifaat Tarabey and Darina Al Joundi. There is even a cameo by MIME contributor and photographer extraordinaire Ammar Abd Rabbo.
Wissam Charaf is a Lebanese/French director, cameraman and editor who has worked as a photojournalist and news editor for ARTE and directed six short films. His feature debut Heaven Sent premiered at the ACID section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous is his second feature project.
Previous winners of the Europa Cinemas Label in Venice include:
2021: Californie, Italy
2020: Oaza (Oasis), Serbia
2019: Corpus Christi, Poland
2018: Joy, Austria
2017: M, France
2016: Sami Blood, Sweden
2015: A peine j'ouvre les yeux, France
2014: I nostri ragazzi, Italy
2013: La belle vie , France
2012: Crawl, France
2011: Présumé coupable, France
2010: Le bruit des glaçons, France
A bit more about Europa Cinemas in Venice: The 27 Times Cinema project returned to Venice this year for its thirteen edition. Set up by Europa Cinemas in partnership with the European Parliament and Giornate degli Autori, 27 young film-lovers, representing each of the 27 EU member states and selected among the young audiences of the Europa Cinemas Network, will be in Venice for the duration of the Mostra. The 27 filmgoers will attend screenings and participate in debates about the films, along with directors, film professionals and Members of the European Parliament. They will publish articles and contribute to the Europa Cinemas social networks. Since 2014, the members of the 27 Times Cinema team have been assigning the Giornate degli Autori Award, forming one of the largest and most unusual juries on the international film festival scene.
