Dirty Difficult Dangerous by French/Lebanese director Wissam Charaf has won this year’s Europa Cinemas Label award for the best European film screening during the Venice Days, a sidebar of the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
The feature film is a love story set in Beirut between two migrants: Mehdia, an Ethiopian migrant housekeeper, and Ahmed, a Syrian refugee struggling to survive by selling scrap metal. With nothing to lose, the couple seize the opportunity to flee the city in a desperate attempt to start over somewhere else.
along with the price, Dirty Difficult Dangerous will receive promotional support from Europa Cinemas Label, an association of arthouse cinema exhibitors from across Europe, in its theatrical rollout.
“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,” the Europa Cinemas jury said in a statement. “It addresses many of the tragic issues we all face – war, refugees, human trafficking – but Charaf comes up with a love story that even has strong fairytale elements… some darkly funny moments. The film will give audiences a real sense of hope that comes from courage, and we strongly believe it will appeal to far more than arthouse audiences across Europe.”
Dirty Difficult Dangerous was produced by Charlotte Vincent and Katia Khazak, with Marco Valerio Fusco, Micaela Fusco and Pierre Saraf as co-producers. The film is a production of Aurora Films, co-produced by Intramovies and Né à Beyrouth Films. Intramovies sells the film worldwide.