Mounia Akl is an award-winning Lebanese filmmaker. Her short film, Submarine (2016), was in the Official Selection of the 69th Cannes Film Festival (Cinéfondation), SXSW, TIFF, and Dubai Film Festival where it won the Muhr Jury Prize. In 2017, Mounia took part in the Lebanon Factory and co-directed a short film El Gran Libano which opened Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and screened at BFI London among others. Mounia is currently developing new projects between Beirut and LA. Read More

synopsis

The free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in the utopic mountain home they have built. But unexpectedly, a garbage landfill is built right outside their fence, bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so do tensions between leaving or resisting, threatening their idyllic home and family unity. Mounia Akl makes her highly anticipated debut (Cinéfondation Residency, Torino Film Lab, Sundance Institute Lab), with a darkly comic commentary on the realities of modern-day Lebanon Read More

Highlights

BFI London Film Festival, United Kingdom

El Gouna Film Festival, Egypt

Cinemed, France

Toronto International Film Festival, Canada