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PRODUCTION / FUNDING France / Lebanon / Italy / Qatar

Filming is imminent on Wissam Charaf’s Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous

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- Shooting will begin in Corsica on the filmmaker’s second fiction feature after Heaven Sent, steered by Aurora Films

Filming is imminent on Wissam Charaf’s Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous
Director Wissam Charaf

The first clapperboard is set to slam on 24 May for Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Wissam Charaf
film profile
]
, the second fiction feature film to come courtesy of the Lebanese French director Wissam Charaf after his much-remarked first work Heaven Sent [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(unveiled in Cannes’ ACID programme in 2016). The cast stars the French actress of Ethiopian descent Clara Couturet (in her very first feature film role), Ziad Jallad (hitting screens at the end of June in Skies of Lebanon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), Darina Al Joundi (recently seen in Berlin in Copilot [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anne Zohra Berrached
film profile
]
and especially well-received in The Freshmen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) and Rifaat Tarabay (Khalass).

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Written by Wissam Charaf, Hala Dabaji and Mariette Désert (who was nominated for the 2014 Best Screenplay César by way of Suzanne [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile
]
), the story revolves around Ahmed, a Syrian refugee who had hoped to find love with Mehdia, an Ethiopian cleaning lady, but it seems impossible in Beirut... Will this pair of sentimental refugees successfully find the path towards freedom, despite the fact that Syrian War survivor Ahmed seems to be consumed by a mysterious illness which is slowly transforming his body into metal?

Dirty, Difficult, Dangerous is produced by Charlotte Vincent on behalf of Parisian firm Aurora Films (who also headed up Heaven Sent), and is co-produced by Lebanon’s Né à Beyrouth Films and by Marco Valerio Fusco on behalf of Italy’s IntraMovies. The feature film enjoys the support of the Italian Ministry for Culture (MiC), the French-Speaking Film Fund - OIF, the Collectivity of Corsica, the Doha Film Institute and the CNC (via its emergency fund for Lebanon). The five-week film shoot will unfold until 2 July between Corsica and Beirut. Distribution in French cinemas will be managed by JHR while international sales are jointly entrusted to IntraMovies and Egypt’s MAD Solutions.

For the record, Aurora Films are currently overseeing post-production on Petite Solange [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Axelle Ropert
film profile
]
by Axelle Ropert and are also set to kick off filming on Blandine Lenoir’s Angry Annie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 in mid-June. Recent stand-out works put forward by the firm include If It Were Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Patric Chiha
film profile
]
by Patric Chiha (screened in the Berlinale’s 2020 Panorama section) and Diamond Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Davy Chou (Cannes’ Critics’ Week 2016), two filmmakers whose upcoming feature-length movies are likewise in development with Aurora Films.

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(Translated from French)

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