Venice Award Winner Ahmad Ghossein on Absurdist Comedy ‘The Side Effects of Trusting Life’ and War in Lebanon: ‘People Want Topics From Us, Not Cinema’

variety.com:

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor Five years after his feature debut “All This Victory” took the Grand Prize and the audience award at Venice’s Critics’ Week, Lebanese filmmaker Ahmad Ghossein is gearing up to shoot his next film.

The filmmaker’s sophomore effort, “The Side Effects of Trusting Life,” was selected as part of this year’s Thessaloniki Film Festival’s Agora Crossroads Co-Production Forum, where it took the Midpoint Consulting Award. “The new film is challenging because of what is going on in Lebanon but I wrote it before it all,” Ghossein told Variety, referring not only to the current war with Israel but the turmoil the country has faced in the last five years. “In 2019, Lebanon collapsed completely — economically, politically and socially.

It was an example of how capitalism and the new liberalism failed. If you want to look at the banking system and how it is failing worldwide, just look at Beirut.

That image was very strong and I found myself in survival mode, which inspired the dark humor.” “The Side Effects of Trusting Life” follows Lama, a young woman who starts having hearing issues due to panic attacks following the loss of her job during the Lebanon economic crisis.