To all the people who said this is a shameful representations of Syrians, you would know if you paid attention to the movie that the boy snd his family are actually Lebanese. Stop trying to bring attention to issues that are not even there in the first place. The movie is beautifully filmed and Labaki managed to capture so many issues present in our society (I say this as a Lebanese myself) in such a brilliant way.
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karamcaline21 September 2018
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"Capernaum" is a very unpleasant film that deals with very unpleasant situations and people. Because of that, it's not a film for kids to watch and I don't recommend anyone suffering from depression watch the movie....it's very hard to take and is brutal in its realism.
The film is about a 12 year-old named Zain who lives in Lebanon and who physically looks like a 9 or 10 year-old...possibly because of malnutrition. The film begins with the boy in prison for stabbing someone and his parents have been called back to court because the boy is now suing them for bringing him life. The film then is a series of flashbacks which show how neglected the boy was. It became so bad that eventually he is taken in by an illegal alien and he takes care of her baby while she goes out looking for any work. Later, when she disappears, Zain continues caring for the baby and trying to work at the same time. It's a miserable existence and you know eventually it will end in violence.
This film was made with a minimum of dialog and a plot that is hard to see without the story tearing at your heart. It's one of the more unpleasant movies I've seen in some time and implies many things that aren't overtly stated, such as pedophilia and other ghastly crimes. Hard to take...so much so that although it's an excellent character study, it's the sort of film few would really want to watch in the first place. -
thesar-224 August 2020Watch this and you'll never feel poor again. You might even appreciate every single thing you own.
Wow, this movie set in the slums of Beirut, Lebanon, did a 180 on me. The entire movie revolves around the main character, child, Zain - maybe 12, maybe 13, but wise beyond twice his maybe age. At first, I didn't care for him. He seemed always angry, cross, mean and rude. I just accepted this is the character the movie's about.
Well, then the 180 degrees SLOOOOWLY, but surely kicks in. It takes a lot of patience, attention and definitely reading to see why he's like what he is and it may break your heart.
Zain has an infinite number of brothers and sisters and some ruthless parents. The one Zain loves and cares for the most, his 11-year-old sister, Sahar and is being courted by a full-grown man. Just as Zain is about to run away to save Sahar, she is, in fact, sold/bartered to the man to be his 11-year-old wife. Unable to save her Zain just leaves.
That's all just the setup, as not the movie kicks in with his journey, observations and inability to take care of a baby he ends up with. And there's much more. Believe me when I tell you I've only told you 10% of the plot just so you know what you're getting into.
Wow, this movie was heartbreaking, uplifting from the boy's plight and scary this could/probably does happen. That 180 turnaround I spoke about: well, I ended up loving this kid. Pitying him, definitely, but he's more MAN at 12 or 13 then most adult men are.
Highly recommend this movie. Use this as birth control. No one else seems to be getting the message.
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Final thoughts: Beirut, Lebanon's been in the news lately from their nuclear-sized blast. While this isn't a pretty movie by ANY means, at least it's an uplifting tale of someone speaking out against the wrongs of some its people. Wish people would hear this message, but sadly, unlikely. -
Zi_Reviews_Movies21 August 2022At first, I didn't want to review the movie, just give it the highest rating and leave it at that because I don't think I am worthy to judge it. And here I am, writing this, not because I have become any worthier but because people need to watch it. Capernaum tugs at your heartstrings and makes you ache. It's painful, and not in an ordinary way. I watched the movie a few days back and I still think about it. It's definitely made me more grateful for the things I have. The actors don't feel like they're acting (to some extent they're not), it feels like a reality, their innocent eyes describing a journey most of the world was unaware of.
I want to recommend this to everyone, but if you're at a low point in your life or show signs of depression, avoid it, you suffer enough. I watched most of the film with tears streaming down my face and at the end, I just sat in the dark with the credits rolling and wondering about the world we live in.
Capernaum is a masterpiece. -
HadeelKouta26 September 2018Capharnaum - The Movie
Nadine Labaki always astonishes me with her work and this is actually my first time ever to write a review about a movie. But this... this is a masterpiece...
Capharnaum managed to stir my emotions, it awakened my mind to things we see on a daily basis but decide to ignore. It was a big slap in the face, to be honest. As I watched, I hated myself for having food and shelter. I hated the fact that I paid 14.000 LBPs for my own pleasure and enjoyment to watch a movie. I hated the fact that I bought a $1 worth of pop corn for $7. Why do I get to enjoy a three-hour movie whilst others need that money for a three-day food supply? For those who still haven't seen it, it's a story of a supposedly 12-year old boy who gets sued for stabbing a "son of a bitch" (as the boy, Zain describes him). It depicts the life of a typical Lebanese poor family, only if the word poor was enough. It portrays how they eat, how they dress, how they talk and behave and what they do for a living. It was so REAL that I thought it was actual footage from Zain's life. The movie also displays the life of an Ethiopian woman who has no permit and who was knocked up by some guy and gave birth to a baby she can barely support. Oh, speaking of the Ethiopian woman; I was meaning to mention, as soon as the movie starts, we see Zain at court and then we also see the Ethiopian, Tegist with tears in her eyes while waiting for Internal Security to call out her name. At this point I'm really curious as of what this is going to be about and some guy behind me makes a "funny" joke about the scene saying "oh, so the Ethiopian is the star of the movie?"... I don't know why but I thought I'd mention that because it left me in shock... we'll get back to that later.
Capharnaum addresses poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, cruelty, racism, unawareness and child abuse. On the other hand, it also addresses kindness, innocence, forgiveness and faith. It is just amazing how Zain worked so damn hard to support Tigest's baby all alone while his parents didn't have a care in the world for their own children. A 12-year old boy taking care of a baby was just so heartwarming and beautiful. Zain's personality is amazingly complex and in him one can touch awareness and illiteracy at the same time. Innocence and violence. Politeness and insensitivity. Good and bad. Love and hate. He had a vision, he had a message. His message was bigger than governments and countries. It was bigger than you and me. It was a message that we decide to laugh about instead of help spread. The message is simplified in one word: AWARENESS.
About the guy I mentioned earlier, lets hope he has learned something from the movie...
Lets make this movie our prayer before going to bed every night... Then, we could try and change the world to the better.
Nadine Labaki keeps on dazzling us with her great work... I can't wait for the next one. We, as Lebanese, are so proud of you. And the whole world should be. Much love. -
ibrahim-elzein-2018913 September 2018This is what you call art. This is not just a movie, this is a story of the hardships of life told from the eyes of a beautiful boy.
Nadine Labaki out did herself by portraying the reality that most countries are going through in this time and age.
Do not believe the negative reviews. This is not at all about refugees, they do not even cover this topic in the movie. This is about survival in the toughest and most heartbreaking of situations.
This movie should be on everybody's watch list. It is tough at times, but that's life these days.
Watch it for the sake of the children like Zain. -
Zain Al Rafeea is a terrific revelation in this powerful and profoundly devastating look at the miserable existence of a poor child who, like many others, deserved so much more from life - and I'm pretty sure his eyes of infinite sadness will haunt me for the rest of my life after this.
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salahdeanmoussalli7 October 2018It's almost like documentary, real honest raw emotions of unfortunate forgotten children in the world in any country with homeless or refugee kids
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Labaki excels in creating a masterpiece that should harvest as many awards as it can, and hopefully the Oscar. It is a heart breaking story with amazing protagonists performance. No one can expects an amazing acting coming from a child and a toddler of such ages! Will Zein be nominated for an Oscar? No one can deny that he deserves it. Labaki directed a marvelous film revealing a great pure talent.
Seeing this many fake reviews here with 1 star rating reveals that these "reviewers" are manipulating the overall rating of the movie with an unfair score. Anyone who actually watched the movie will give it an above than average rating no matter his taste. -
bugsmoran2912 July 2019This movie was almost unwatchable for me at time because of its heartbreaking depiction of life on the streets of a big city. The scenes with the 12 year pulling around the infant in a big pot as he sought to provide for them both made me cry. There's so much pain in the world!
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Taking as its subject the horrific plight of guttersnipe children in the slums of Beirut, Capharnaüm is the kind of film of which a superficial reading might suggest miserablism at best, and "poverty porn" at worst. Comparisons to film such as Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Trash (2014), and The Florida Project (2017) are probably inevitable, albeit not very informative if one wishes to parse the film. Instead, it's much more useful to view Capharnaüm in the tradition of classic Italian neorealist pictures such as Ossessione (1943), Roma città aperta (1945), and Ladri di biciclette (1948), albeit far more pessimistic than any of them.
The third film from Lebanese writer/actress/director Nadine Labaki, Capharnaüm is written by Labaki, Michelle Keserwany, and Labaki's regular writing partner Jihad Hojeily (Labaki's husband Georges Khabbaz and the film's producer and composer, Khaled Mouzanar are both credited with "screenplay collaboration"). Presenting a milieu in which people are utterly discardable, the film depicts children who are literally bought and sold for a few chickens; 11-year-old girls who are married off so their family can afford the rent; babies who are fed on ice cubes covered in sugar; refugees who roam the streets; mental illness which goes untreated; and people without a Lebanese identity card who don't officially exist. The film works because it never feels like it's exploiting, patronising, or trivialising the poverty and misfortune it depicts, never attempting to manipulate the audience into feeling a preconceived emotion. On the contrary, it's matter-of-fact, and notable for just how unsentimental it is. However, it's also deeply humanist, with genuine compassion in its DNA and a quiet rage at its core, born partly from an inherent sense of authenticity; shot in the style of cinéma vérité, it uses non-professional actors whose lives are not dissimilar from the characters they play. There are some problems, of course - the framing device of a trial is poorly conceived and distracts from the superior filmmaking surrounding it, the ending is disappointingly didactic, and the litany of hardships endured by the main character does get a little over-the-top. However, this is undeniably impressive filmmaking, as harrowing and angry, as it is solicitous and respectful.
The film tells the story of Zain El Hajj (Zain Al Rafeea), a young boy from the slums of Beirut serving a five-year prison sentence for, as he puts it, "stabbing a son-of-a-bi-ch." Neither he nor his parents, mother Souad (Kawsar Al Haddad) and father Selim (Fadi Yousef), know Zain's exact age, as he was never officially registered, and therefore has no birth cert. As the film begins, Zain is brought before a judge, as he has decided to sue his parents for bringing him into the world despite not being able to care for their already numerous children. The film then flashes back several months, showing Zain running away from home after failing to prevent his parents selling his beloved 11-year-old sister Sahar (Cedra Izzam) to the landlord Assad (Nour El Husseini). Seeking refuge in a rundown amusement park, he meets Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw), an Ethiopian refugee working as a cleaner. Taking pity on him, she agrees to let him stay with her in exchange for him looking after her one-year-old son Yonas (an absolutely astounding performance by Boluwatife Treasure Bankole) when she's at work, and the trio quickly form a close bond, until one day, Rahil doesn't return home.
Thoroughly uplifting stuff, am I right? The title of the film is a French word (alternatively spelt Capernaum). The term was originally the name of a Biblical fishing village on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is mentioned multiple times across all four gospels, as a place where Jesus performed several miracles. However, it's best known from Matthew 11:23, when Jesus curses the village for its lack of faith in him. Later on, however, the word came to be used in French literature to signify a state of chaos and disorder. The current dictionary definition is, "a confused jumble; a place marked by a disorderly accumulation of objects".
From an aesthetic perspective, Labaki wisely keeps things simple and functional, eschewing any directorial gymnastics, with the aesthetic design perfectly chosen to convey the story she wishes to tell. Adopting a documentarian style, cinematographer Christopher Aoun sticks to handheld cameras and, for the most part, natural lighting. The scenes on the streets of Beirut are especially impressive, with Labaki shooting most of the material from roughly Zain's height, or slightly lower. This allows the scenes to adopt a heavily focalised and subjective view of the world, without having to resort to less elegant POV shots. Chadi Roukoz's sound design is also superb in these exterior scenes, with the soundtrack crammed with car horns, shouting, crying, laughter, dogs barking, airplanes flying overhead, traffic on the streets. It's an aural overload, conveying how the massive city is overwhelming Zain, and again, tying us to his subjectivity. Placing us not just in Zain's world, but, crucially, in his subjective interpretation of that world, Labaki draws us to him, allowing us to view the world partly as outraged adults, but also as sharers in his experiences.
Zain is no saint; he's a rough, foul-mouthed thief, but he's also the most inherently honourable character in the film. Labaki could easily have used Zain to attempt to elicit unearned pity, but instead, she is far more interested in examining the day-to-day survival of children like him. One of his most salient characterises is his practical-minded solutions to the challenges he faces, and in this, we're encouraged to respect how he responds to his situation rather than pity him for being in such a situation in the first place. The film adopts something of the same manner; much like Zain, it's tough-minded and practical, and just as his hardened exterior is completely authentic, so too is the film's quiet anger.
Labaki sets the tone for the film to come in the very first shot, as we see Zain, filthy dirty, in only his vest and underwear. It is subsequently driven home multiple times that life is almost worthless in this place - Sahar is sold for some chickens, Rahil is encouraged to sell Yonas in return for forged migrant documents, one man brags, "I can buy a human for 500". This is a world in which people think of children in the same way as they think of commodities, with the notion of adults protecting children subservient to that of adults looking at children in a cold transactional manner. In such a place, Zain somehow manages to retain his sense of empathy, although he too is infected with the concept that everything is transactional, as his pragmatism illustrates to him that materialism is the order of the day. However, although he suppresses his sense of compassion, he does not completely extinguish it, nor would he want to. In a world where adults are reprehensible, and children their innocent victims, Zain is the story's moral compass, exhibiting a humanity far in excess of any kindness than has ever been shown to him.
In terms of problems, there are a few. The framing device of the trial, for example, is awkwardly realised, and for the most part, serves only to interrupt the far more compelling story of Zain, Rahil, and Yonas. Additionally, not only do the scenes in court come across as more heavily scripted than everything else, but they also depict something that couldn't happen (as Labaki herself has acknowledged, children can't sue their parents for giving birth to them). Obviously intended as a means to dramatize how Zain wants a voice, it is nonetheless a narrative contrivance that gets in the way of the far more accomplished filmmaking seen elsewhere. Surrounded by the more naturalistic realism of the rest of the film, the court scenes stand out because they feel like a plot machination. The third act in particular, which focuses primarily on the trial, strays into something Labaki has deftly avoid everywhere else; didacticism. Elsewhere, there is something of a sense that Labaki overloads the story, pushing just one too many hardships on Zain, as she attempts to cover a plethora of topics (including, but not limited to domestic violence, the migrant crisis, human trafficking, paedophilia, child labour, education, the justice system), and on occasion, the film feels like it's going to collapse under the weight of human suffering and thematic nihilism. This is a shame because some of the best scenes are those involving Zain and Yonas just going about their day, and if Labaki had had the confidence in these quieter moments, she might have scaled back on the socio-political content.
Never feeling exploitative, nor glorifying the poverty at its centre, the film isn't even especially sentimental, depicting scenes with a raw matter-of-factness, that were they featured in a Hollywood movie would be in slow-motion, with string music telling us to "Cry now". The conclusion is disappointingly didactic, and the journey there harrowing and exhausting. However, in the last shot, Labaki dares to offer a very cautious bit of optimism, and ultimately, the takeaway is not despair, but compassion. Just as Zain finds a humanity within himself that should be long dead, the film finds a moment of optimism amidst the chaos, and encourages the audience to cling to it. -
tedicaprio7 July 2019OMG. Zain and Yonas are movie miracles. The director succeeded in crafting them into natural actors. And the story ..... flowing like a strong current that carries you helplessly you can't do nothing but let go of everything. And Zain, how his energy infiltrated my being, I realized that I smiled when he also finally smiled at the end, that through the movie I became him. He is magic!
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jboothmillard2 March 2020I first heard about this Lebanese film when film critic Mark Kermode gave his review for it on BBC News The Film Review, and then I found it listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I was most interested in it. Basically, twelve-year-old Zain El Hajj (Zain Al Rafeea) is serving a five-year sentence in Roumieh Prison for murder, after stabbing someone and showing no remorse. Neither Zain nor his parents know his exact date of birth as they never received an official birth certificate. In court, Zain declares he wants to sue his mother Souad (Kawsar Al Haddad) and his father Selim (Fadi Kamel Yousef). When asked by the judge why he wants to sue his parents, Zain answers "Because I was born". Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities process a group of migrant workers, including a young Ethiopian woman named Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw). The story then flashes back several months to before Zain was arrested. He is a gutsy, streetwise child living with his parents and at least seven other siblings who make money in various schemes instead of going to school. Zain forges prescription drugs for his mother to sell drug-soaked clothing to drug addicts. Zain also works as a delivery boy for Assad (Nour El Husseini), the family's landlord, and the owner of a local market stall. One morning, Zain helps his eleven-year-old sister Sahar (Cedra Izzam) to hide the evidence of her first period, fearing she will be married if her parents discover that she can now become pregnant. Zain makes plans to escape with Sahar and begin a new life. He finally runs away, angered when his parents do indeed marry off Sahar to Assad, and catches a bus with an elderly man dressed in a knock-off superhero costumes, he calls him Cockroachman (Joseph Jimbazian). At the Luna Park in Ras Beirut, Zain meets Rahil, an Ethiopian migrant worker who is working as a cleaner at a theme park. She takes pity on Zain and agrees to let him live with her in exchange for Zain babysitting her undocumented infant son Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole) when she is at work. Rahil's forged migrant documents are due to expire, and she doesn't have enough money to pay her forger Aspro (Alaa Chouchnieh) for new documents. Rahil refuses Aspro's offer to adopt Yonas to him in exchange for the documents to be forged for free. Rahil's documents expire and she is arrested by Lebanese authorities. Zain panics when she does not return, and after several days he begins looking after Yonas, claiming he is his brother, and sells drugs again to make money. One day, while at Souk Al Ahad, Zain meets young girl Syrian refugee Maysoun (Farah Hasno) and claims that Aspro has agreed to send her to Sweden. Zain demands that Aspro send him to Sweden as well, Aspro agrees to do so if Zain gives him Yonas. Zain reluctantly agrees, and Aspro tells him that he will need some form of identification. Zain returns to his parents and demands they give him his identification, but they tell him he doesn't have any. Having disowned him for leaving, they kick him out of their house. Before leaving his parents reveal to him that Sahar died due to pregnancy complications. Zain is furious, steals a knife and stabs Assad. He is arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison, Zain learns that his mother is pregnant and plans to name the child Sahar. Disgusted by his mother's lack of remorse for her daughter's death, he contacts the media and says that he is tired of parents neglecting their children and plans to sue his parents for having children when they cannot care for them. Zain also claims that Aspro is adopting children illegally and mistreating them. Aspro's house is raided and the children and parents are reunited, including Yonas and Rahil. Zain's photo is taken for his ID card. Also starring Elias Khoury as The Judge. Rafeea gives a compelling performance as the pre-adolescent boy living in poverty doing whatever it takes to solve his money problems, the court case is not something you can seriously, but the leading actor, authentic locations, hand-held cinematography and apparently improvised material make it all worthwhile, an interesting drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year, it was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Foreign Language. Very good!
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ivanunk28 April 2020Take out the scenes in the court and the whole premise of the kid suing his parents. Take out the philosophical thoughts of this kid about life, take out the artificial conflicts, the slow motion, the arguments with his parents, the dramatized running after his sister or running with the knife. Take out everything that feels fake, constructed and for the sake of being liked or being profound, take out all the big messages that this director so hardly wants to convey and you might end up with a much better, honest, true to life 90min film after all. A film that sends the same messages about parenting, kids and poverty on a more subtle, believable way. Unfortunately, now we can only witness this long set of scenes that have the occasional sparkle (especially in the second part) but feel utterly disconnected. So at the end it leaves us unimpressed or not really interested in the outcome for this boy, court hearing or anything else that is of great matter to the authors of this film. Sometimes less is more.
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andrewestrella16 November 2018I have taken so long to review this film because it has had so much of an emotional effect on me. It was also the first film I saw at AFI Festival and since I was genuinely shocked at how bad the subsequent films I saw there, I decided to get those out of the way first.
Well, here I am, giving my review on the most heart-wrenching yet most beautiful film I have ever seen. The "acting" was absolutely extraordinary (standouts are from a young eleven year old boy and a one year old baby). The score from the director's husband happens to be one of my favorite pieces of music from the decade. The cinematography manages to take some of the most disgusting places in the world and manages to give it beauty, especially through the gorgeous landscape and aerial shots.
Coming from a Lebanese female director, Capernaum is a film that discusses a variety of issues, but I will try to make it as simple as I can. In the present day, our main character, eleven year old Zain is a boy currently serving a sentence for stabbing a man. Through certain circumstances, Zain is able to take a break from jail to partake in a court case against his parents, where he is attempting to sue them for ever having him in the first place and to urge them to never have kids again. Through a series of flashbacks, we get to see Zain suffering in his large family of about seven to eight, including sisters of all ages, and two horribly misguided parents. The parents struggle financially, forcing their children to work long hours and never partake in school. The parents also abuse Zain for being extremely rebellious in nature (think of Rebel Without a Cause) and they starve him a lot. There is a lot of family issues here, but over the course of the film, Zain experiences a journey of a lifetime, running away from home and trying to make a life for himself, living life on the streets. Regardless of the amount of suffering Zain goes through, he delivers an utmost love and care for everyone around him.
Capernaum is an extraordinary film that won my heart in every way. It depicts the harsh realities of the children living in squalor in Lebanon, and perhaps in all of the Middle East. Filmed as a narrative, Capernaum actually uses real life Syrian refugees and kids who were all going through extremely similar circumstances to the ones found in this film. The director and her husband were their following the screening, and they really emphasized how they spent 100s of hours in Lebanon, ensuring that they experienced the squalor themselves and the interviewed hundreds of children to get an idea of what life is like there.
The common theme: "I wish I never lived" or "I wish my parents never had me."
The director took those two most common statements and developed a powerful film that gives humanity to these children who need it most. Perhaps the themes of love and compassion amidst squalor and pain could be a guiding light to all the children who are suffering in the foster care system or are getting abused here in the United States as well. I just hope Capernaum spreads awareness to all people throughout the world that child abuse is still rampant throughout the world, and all children want to be is loved. All people want to be is accepted and have a home. All people just wanted to be treated like a *queues Tommy Wiseau's voice* human being.
Honestly, I am proud to say this is currently my favorite film of all time. At two and a half hours long, I was begging for more at the end. Bring lots of tissues, but also do not be afraid to let loose and laugh a little.
Regardless of all the positive reviews for Roma, I am going to be rooting for Capernaum to win Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. This experience changed my life, and I hope it does for you as well.
Fun Fact: The original cut was ten hours long.
Another fun fact: This received a 15 minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival, and it was well deserved. -
lea-bou77 November 2018This movie shows a lot of issues that we can find in Lebanon but also in a lot of other countries , it raises awareness of how bad life can get specially to young children . I hope that after watching this movie every single one of us will start to act in order to make this world a better place . Nadine Labaki did an amazing job because she showed the truth in a strong and realistic way . I also want to add that the kid is very talented he played his caracter in such a powerful way we could see pain in his eyes and it touched our heart and soul ! I recommend this movie it's a roller coaster of emotions !!
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wisDOM8718 April 2020It's the missing question in the often heated debates about child poverty - I hear it all the time in my own country (UK) - has it risen? Should the government be doing more to help? How can a developed country tolerate children growing up in squalor? The question that is never asked, that is in fact completely taboo to even suggest, is why are people living in poverty having children? And is that moral?
It is the question asked by Zain, the protagonist of this superb film, who decides to sue his parents for having him. Having endured a lifetime of neglect, abuse and poverty he thinks no, and asks the court to prevent his parents from having anymore children.
That sets the film rolling, the vast majority of which takes place in flashback as we see how Zain ended up in court. Along the way we see the grim reality of life in the slums of Beirut, as Zain eventually decides to run away after his parents sell off his older (11 year old) sister in marriage to their landlord. He ends up living with an undocumented Ethiopian migrant who lives in a shack with her baby, and Zain ends up looking after the child while the mother works. This provides a counterpoint in many ways to the earlier scenes, as the threesome establish something akin to the warm loving home Zain had never known. But yet again, the films forces us to ask - why has this woman had a child? Though employed, she lives in squalor, and as an illegal migrant her child will never be able to get an education, as a local people trafficker trying to persuade her to sell the child reminds her. Is this moral? Does her right to have a child trump that of the child's right for a decent start in life?
The films develops from there, though I cannot reveal anymore without spoiling the final act. Though this isn't really a plot-driven film per se, more a slice-of-life look at Zain and how he deals with the situations life throws at him. This film reminded me very much of 'Salaam Bombay', Mira Nair's 1987 film which deals with street children in Mumbai.
It's a brave film and the only other film I can think of which tackles this issue is Ken Loach's 'Ladybird Ladybird', in which an impoverished woman with a chaotic home-life repeatedly gets pregnant. There I think Loach approached his protagonist from a more sympathetic perspective, seeing her as a victim of an unfair economic system and social forces beyond her control. Though I may be misreading her intention, Nadine Labaki takes this further and asks - is it basically selfish for people in these circumstances to have children?
Personally speaking - should the government (whether in rich or poor countries) be doing more to alleviate poverty? Yes. Is the economic system both within and between states currently too unequal? Yes. If you are stuck in poverty, dealing with poor mental health, drug addiction, illiteracy, malnutrition, slum-living condition - that sucks, and is unfair. But one thing you should not be doing is bringing children into that situation and thereby perpetuating the cycle of misery. Yes, some children rise above their circumstances, but the vast majority don't, and are thereby condemned to a miserable life through no fault of their own. It's the height of selfishness. This is the provocative question Labaki and Zain pose in this engrossing film. -
veronicaczastkiewicz14 August 2018Just had the pleasure of viewing this film at the Sarajevo Film Festival. Absolutely incredible, powerful story of a handful of hapless, unlucky individuals navigating a cruel world. Right when the sadness of watching becomes too much, the despair relents only to draw you in for a deeper, darker ride. Not for the faint of heart. Incredible production. Thank you.
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classicsoncall4 September 2019This is one of the more disturbing movies one is likely to see. Disturbing in the sense that it reveals the horrendous conditions that people are forced to live in if they have no other recourse. The story follows a twelve year old Lebanese boy, (who quite literally doesn't even know his true age) who has seen enough in his short lifetime that he has no trouble at all distinguishing good from bad. Unfortunately for Zain (Zain Al Rafeea), things are almost always bad, as the story traces his tragic circumstances at home and the way he's forced to use his street smarts to survive in unrelenting chaotic conditions. What infuriated me the most was the extent of human trafficking that the film reveals, which affected Zain's own family and circumstances, to a degree that he lost his own eleven year old sister to a merchant who traded meager security for a youngster he could abuse sexually. I would have been more comfortable with the central character if his upbringing hadn't contaminated him with the obscene language he used in virtually every circumstance, calling his own mother a whore, though her treatment of Zain certainly didn't qualify Saoud (Kawsar Al Haddad) as Mother of the Year. What the story never got around to however, was a resolution to the premise that Zain sued his parents for 'being born'. A courtroom hearing delivered no reprisals against the couple, nor do we learn what happened to the man Assaad (Nour El Husseini), who made Zain's sister an unintended victim. The pathos and poignancy of the story is best expressed in Zain's own words to a mother who held no value for the life her children - "Your words are stabbing me in the heart".
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kosmasp9 March 2021This is not a documentary, yet it may very well have been. It does feel a lot like one. And because of that, which includes a pace and a mood that some may not like that much, it may or may not be your cup of tea. The family problems and issues are so direct and so obnoxious at times, that you may feel annoyed. This is by design. Depending on your level of empathy, you will of course have different reactions to a crying baby for example.
This is not a judging tool and we are all different in many ways, which in general is a good thing. But this is also why we'll react differently to certain things and it's ok. It would be bad if all liked the same things and would not leave any room for discussions - which hopefully are not stretching into fights. Because whether you think this is a masterpiece (and there are indications of that here, thorough throughout, grim, dark, but taken directly from life - the drama and all that) or think this is not worth a minute of your time ... doesn't mean you're more right than anyone not believing what you believe.
It's quite the harrowing and draining watching experience. So not an easy watch (not just because of babies crying, but generally what happens to kids - not just physically but mentally and so forth) ... does this sound like something you want to watch? -
Pjtaylor-96-13804424 September 2019'Capernaum (2019)' is social-realism at its finest, so palpably 'real' that it almost seems a documentary. It somehow depicts a bleak and difficult-to-stomach world with sparks of hope and fun. Of course, a lot of what happens is devastating, too. Apparently, writer-director Labaki amalgamated the story only from real-life events she witnessed first-hand during her research. It certainly shows and, for me, this information makes everything that much more heart-breaking. It's precisely because it's so real that it hurts so much. This emotional connection is only possible because of a fantastically subdued screenplay, some brilliant direction and typically phenomenal performances from all members of the cast. Indeed, the child actors are remarkably good here, ranging in age from pre-teen to barely out-of-the-womb. It's impressive stuff that solidifies the film as one of the most believable in recent years. The whole thing is just effortlessly engaging, wrapping you up in a relatively small story that usually wouldn't get the time of day it deserves. It may be fiction, but it highlights a plethora of issues that truly plague our world every single day. It's all so domestic and, even, mundane, too. It's just a slice of life that we usually don't see. It's great. 8/10
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ffym20 December 2018To me, this is the film about overpopulation, and the responsibility to stop making so many kids. Kids are everywhere, in every shot, like vermin. the scenes they all sleep together. The mother pregnant again. The message is very clear, and I agree with it. I do not agree that parents are caricatures. I would not say so. Acting is great. Whether these issues exist, I cannot judge but I think they do. The script is not perfect, true enough. It is not a masterpiece but it is courageous to bring attention to this issue no one addresses.
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We've heard a lot about refugees in the past few years. There have been images of people trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, or pouring into Lebanon and Jordan, or other things like that. The reality on the ground for them is horrible beyond belief. This topic gets addressed in Nadine Labaki's "Capharnaüm" (also rendered Kafarnaum, called "Capernaum" in English). It concerns Zain, a Lebanese boy who befriends Yonas, an Ethiopian immigrant boy.
Shot in a naturalistic style, the movie offers a rough look at their existences. Zain comes from a dilapidated part of the city but has run away from his parents, while Yonas lives with his mother in a cramped apartment. People flee their homes in search of a better and safer life, and then terrible things happen to them in their new homes. It's a heartbreaking movie, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Let's hope that Labaki keeps making these sorts of movies.
No telling how many people this happens to worldwide (and it looks likely to increase). -
Amyth4710 March 2019My Rating : 7/10
We've seen a lot of these little foreign films that show poverty and life in the slums - Shoplifters recently, Salaam Bombay from 1988 - Capernaum follows in the same footsteps and stays relevant to this premise.
It's touching and emotional. Reminiscent of Italian movies from the neo-realist movement such as Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D. etc - Capernaum is honest and makes you feel for the people whose story it tells.
A great little film and wonderfully acted by it's main lead Zain Al Rafeea. -
Capernaum is a Labanese film about a 12 year old boy, Zain, that sues his parents for bringing him to a world in which they can't take a good care of him. We're shown the hard things that he was through on life, and in the end of it all we should ask ourselves - do we have the right to judge people without walking in their shoes? Does anyone have?
Well...this movie isn't bad, but it has a lot of problems. Let's start from the things that I did like - Zain's acting was really solid, the film is pretty well-shot and edited, and I did enjoy to an extent from some parts of the story. And yeah, the Ethiopian baby is cute. That's about it.
Now, this film has a big problem. One big, fat, unignorable problem - it's super shallow. Yes, I was somewhat invested on Zain's character. He went through hard things, and it's pretty hard to not feel anything. But this film - from its message, the way it's portrayed to the characters, there's nothing there whatsoever. If I was to compare Capernaum to another film, it would be to Bicycle Thieves, but while BT succeeds in communicating an interesting message, portraying a layered problem and telling a pretty interesting story, Capernaum just throws at you that hard lives of Zain and that's about it.
So, to conclude it all - the film didn't make me suffer. It was pretty good on the technical level, and the plot isn't bad, but when digging into it it turns out to be quite shallow and not that interesting. Feeling a 5.7 on this one.