Wissam Charaf’s DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS holds its Arab world premiere at RSIFF, garners festival-wide acclaim

release date January 30 2023

Wissam Charaf’s DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS held its Arab world premiere on Sunday at the 2022 Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) — which is running from December 1st to the 10th in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — where it competed in the festival’s main competition.

The film garnered great reactions during a full-house first screening attended by director Wissam Charaf, as well as members of the cast Clara Couturet and Ziad Jallad, along with producers Pierre Sarraf, Katia Khazak, and Marco Valerio Fusco. Audience, critics, and media outlets were all full of praise for the award-winning Lebanese drama.

DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS has two more screenings to go at the RSIFF — one on Monday, December 5th at 6:15 pm in VOX Cinema 1 - Red Sea Mall, and the other on Saturday, December 10th at 8 pm in VOX Cinema 2 - Red Sea Mall.

Previously, the film opened the 19th Giornate degli Autori (GdA) — a parallel section held on the sidebars of the Venice International Film Festival — and won the 2022 Europa Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, which ran from August 31st to September 10th.

DIRTY, DIFFICULT, DANGEROUS was supported by CNC, Corsica Region, Doha Film Institute, the Red Sea Fund, Italy’s Ministry of Culture, Fonds Image de la Francophonie, and MEDIA.
It also received the Award of the French Institute in Tunisia from Carthage Pro Professional platform, the Arte Prize at the Busan Film Festival, and the CNC Award in Dubai Film Connection, in addition to being awarded a full promotion package from the Red Sea International Film Festival.

The film follows Ahmed — a Syrian refugee roaming the streets of Beirut searching for metal objects to be recycled — who thought he’d find love with Mehdia, an Ethiopian expat. However, in this city, such a story seems almost impossible.

Will the couple be able to reclaim their freedom despite Ahmed’s body slowly turning to metal due to a mysterious illness?

The film received positive reviews from international media outlets, with Fabien Lemercier from Cineuropa saying that “the film’s intentionally minimalist tone and set design, and its occasionally incredible adventures lend charm and a fabled air to a work which prioritizes restrained simplicity and unpretentious freshness in a complicated quest for freedom.”

Directed by Wissam Charaf — who co-wrote it with Hala Dabaji and Mariette Désert — the film stars Clara Couturet, Ziad Jallad, Rifaat Tarabay, and Darina Al-Joundi.

It is produced by Aurora Films, Né à Beyrouth Films, and Intramovies. Meanwhile, MAD Solutions is managing the film’s distribution in the Arab world, JHR Films in France, and Intramovies internationally.