Participant is teaming up with leading French sales agent MK2 Films and Endeavor Content to represent worldwide distribution rights on “Costa Brava, Lebanon,” the anticipated feature debut of Lebanese filmmaker Mounia Akl.
“Costa Brava, Lebanon” will be headlined by Lebanese star and filmmaker Nadine Labaki (“Capernaum”), alongside Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri (“The Band’s Visit”). The pair will play a couple who decide to leave the toxic pollution of their home city of Beirut, hoping to build a utopian existence in a pristine home in the mountains. This dream life is shattered when a landfill is built right outside its fence, bringing the garbage and corruption they hoped to leave behind to its door. As the trash rises, so do the tensions in their perfect home.
Akl, an alumni of Cannes’ Cinefondation, previously directed the critically-acclaimed short film “Submarine” in 2015. The student short was nominated for a BAFTA and played at Toronto and SXSW, among other festivals.
“Costa Brava, Lebanon” was co-written by Akl and Spanish filmmaker Clara Roquet (“El Adios”). The pair met while Akl was studying for an MFA in directing at Columbia University in New York, and then went on to develop the project with the support of the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence, TorinoFilmLab and the Sundance Institute Labs.
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Participant became creatively involved when the film commenced production. Jeff Skoll and Anikah McLaren will executive produce on behalf of the Company, along with Georges Schoucair and Myriam Sassine at Beirut-based Abbout Productions lead producing.
The movie is co-produced by Sophie Erbs at Cinema Defacto (France), Katrin Pors at Snowglobe (Denmark), Olivier Guerpillon at Fox in the Snow (Sweden), Ingrid Lill Hogtun at Barentsfilm (Norway) and Sergi Moreno at Lastor Media (Spain).
“Mounia Akl’s ‘Costa Brava, Lebanon’ is an incredibly gripping and timely exposé of our world today,” said
Participant CEO David Linde.
“This is the film we need right now and Mounia is a brilliantly talented filmmaker with a unique perspective on such a universal story,” Linde added.
Fionnuala Jamison, managing director at MK2 Films, said the company was thrilled that “Participant have joined this adventure, further confirming the timeliness of the film and the power of Mounia Akl’s filmmaking and voice.”
MK2 Films recently partnered up with Participant to co-represent worldwide distribution rights on its documentary feature “Invisible Demons” which had its world premiere this week at Cannes.