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Lebanese

Permanent state of emergency

ESSAY: Power goes out, exchange rates fluctuate, bread prices explode, fuel disappears. There are also still traces of the explosion. Yet Beirut's hard-pressed citizens time and again manage to find a foothold in chaos. And the chaos is contributing to Beirut never becoming a clean-up city.

Arab film with political sting

Hany Abu-Assad, Mounia Akl: Huda's Salon / Costa Brava, Lebanon

ARAB FILM DAYS: The thriller Huda's Salon takes a feminist look at the position of women in the Israeli – occupied West Bank, while the distinctive family drama Costa Brava, Lebanon deals with Lebanon's ongoing waste crisis.