

Overview
Comedian John Achkar delivers a heartfelt and hilarious take on the chaos of life in your thirties. While everyone else seems to have it figured out, he’s still just TRYIN’. From everyday absurdities to giving marriage another shot, he proves being a little lost is part of the journey. Filmed live at Paris’s legendary L’Olympia, this marks the first Arabic-language stand-up special by an Arab comedian on its stage. Fresh off a sold-out 85-city global tour, Achkar blends sharp observations, candid stories, and a distinctly Arab perspective that resonates both at home and across the diaspora. Honest, fast-paced, and unfiltered, TRYIN’ turns life’s chaos into comedy gold... reminding us that laughter doesn’t need translation.
Top Cast
John Achkar
Self

Gad Elmaleh
uncredited
Key Film Crew
Production Stats
You May Also Like

Convenience and video store clerks Dante and Randal are sharp-witted, potty-mouthed and bored out of their minds. So in between needling customers, the counter jockeys play hockey on the roof, visit a funeral home and deal with their love lives.
Clerks

When a young woman investigates her town's Nazi past, the community turns against her.
The Nasty Girl

Ambitious Emma Eckhert successfully makes her way into a world previously reserved for men: that of high finance. She quickly becomes popular with small savers, but leads a scandalous life that will cost her.
The Lady Banker

Sindhu Vee - ALPHABET In her deeply personal stand-up special ALPHABET, Sindhu Vee explores being a parent (to kids who really haven't turned out how she had expected), being married (to a great communicator), being a sister (to someone waaay cooler than her) and being a child (who has lost her beloved mother). Vee also considers other serious topics: the hair we want, the friends we have, and what exactly makes a balloon fancy?
Sindhu Vee: Alphabet

A young High School graduate discovers a family secret on his 18th birthday while experiencing the hardships of his childhood friends leaving, finding a new identity, and feeling betrayed by his parents.
James

Samba migrated to France 10 years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burnout. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. Samba's willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together.
Samba

Divorce lawyer Peter Ullrich’s seemingly perfect life shatters when his wife Katja suddenly leaves with their children. To shield his reputation, he hides the split and asks his clerk Thomas - himself reeling from family turmoil - to care for the kids. Amid comedic and touching moments, Thomas bonds with Peter’s children while both men grapple with love, loss, and unexpected emotional upheaval.
Papa und Mama

Architect Mark Wallace and his wife, Joanna, travel to France to meet with an affluent client. While there, they reflect on their first decade of marriage -- memories of when they first met, of courtship, and of road trips through the French countryside. As flirtation and playful quarreling turn to boredom with the banality of married life, the Wallaces struggle to rekindle their passion, while mutual infidelity threatens to tear them apart.
Two for the Road

A couple of thirtysomething best friends unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one’s ex-boyfriend shows up at their apartment with a team of deadly assassins on his trail.
The Spy Who Dumped Me

Like many other couples, teacher Sina and doctor Carl have lost their love in everyday life. They have filed for divorce, and their last words together were exchanged a long time ago. But on Christmas Eve, the disappointed husband and the overwhelmed single mother meet again on a crowded train between Salzburg and Munich. Old wounds are reopened and the two are back in the middle of the most beautiful marital tiff. In the best screwball tradition, male logic and female perspective collide. When the train gets stuck in a snowstorm, the angry couple's nerves are on edge. In their anger, Sina and Carl not only forget themselves, but also their son Felix (10), who is traveling with them and is completely overwhelmed by their arguments. But the other passengers also have their worries, and it is only when the situation in and around the train escalates that Sina and Carl come to their senses.









