Costa Brava, Lebanon captures the joys and frustrations of a close-knit family with an intimacy that feels startlingly natural, and sets them against a sharply drawn backdrop of environmental crisis. In the not-so-distant future, the free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in an idyllic mountain home. Without warning, the government starts to build a garbage landfill right outside their fence, intruding on their domestic utopia and bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so does tension in the household, revealing a long-simmering division between those family members who wish to defend or abandon the mountain oasis they have built. Mounia Akl’s stunning feature debut premiered at Venice and won major prizes at the Toronto and BFI London Film Festivals. Her unique gift with actors is evident in the sensitively realized performances she elicits from her cast, which includes award-winning filmmaker Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) and celebrated actor Saleh Bakri (The Band’s Visit, Walid).

For in-depth thoughts on Costa Brava, Lebanon, please see my colleague Cody Allen’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Costa Brava, Lebanon comes to Blu-Ray in a 1080p presentation that is quite striking. Although this story centers on a single location that is rapidly being surrounded with garbage, this remains a visually rich film with an incredible amount of detail to the environment. The transfer reveals the gnarly filth of each piece of garbage along with the textures of the plant life with supreme clarity. The film does not expand much beyond the normal environmental hues, but the precision of these colors on display make an impact. The interiors are varying shades of brown and other darker tones which the presentation represents with great depth. The white levels are handled beautifully, along with the pleasingly deep blacks that do not appear to suffer from any compression artifacts. Skin tones are very detailed and natural all around. This presentation delivers in all respects.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray disc comes with both a DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 Master Audio track in the original Arabic that represents this story without fault. The dialogue comes through clearly without ever being overwhelmed by the sound effects or the score. Environmental effects create a three-dimensional soundscape of nature and machinery. This is not an action-heavy film, but activity in the low end provides a lot of texture to the proceedings. The really moving score adds a lot to the narrative as it fills the room thoroughly. The sound design is constructed with care as all of the sounds are positioned just right in the mix. This is a well rendered release which presents this movie exactly as it deserves. There are optional English subtitles provided.

Special Features

Over The Shoulder – Director Mounia Akl: A two-minute piece in which Akl discusses what led her to filmmaking through voiceover as you see glimpses of her daily life.

Q&A Clips: A three-minute collection of clips in which Akl discusses the mood on the set, the audience’s reaction to the film, what she wants the audience to take from the film and more.

Behind The Scenes Footage: A 20-second clip of the crew filming on the back of a truck.

Deleted Scenes: Eight unused scenes totaling seven minutes are provided here featuring the family working on a car engine, boiling potatoes, preparing dinner, attending a funeral and more. These are brief moments that were cut for time, but they are worth checking out.
Trailer: The two-minute trailer for Costa Brava, Lebanon is provided here.

Final Thoughts

Costa Brava, Lebanon is a terrific feature directorial debut from Mounia Akl which sensitively and confidently brings prescient social issues into a personal family narrative. The frustrations felt by the characters are soaked up by an audience ready to speak out in favor of a brighter future. The performances are really amazing from the impressive young talent to the dynamic adult actors. Everyone involved with this one should firmly be on your radar moving forward. Kino Lorber has provided a Blu-Ray featuring a top notch A/V presentation and a few brief supplemental features. This journey is worth taking if the film sounds even remotely interesting to you. Recommended

Costa Brava, Lebanon will be available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital on September 13, 2022.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Kino Lorber has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.