“I believe that the accumulation of tragedies can give birth to something extraordinary.”, said the father of Mounia Akl, the director of Costa Brava, Lebanon (18th HKAFF). On August 4th, 2020, a catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut put the Lebanese capital in turmoil. Director Cyril Aris documents the miracle-like filmmaking process of Akl’s award-winning film in the midst of despair: the odds were against the production team; the crew was hampered by a plethora of misadventures: political instability, the collapse of the economy and the ravaging pandemic.