Director: Nadine Labaki
Cast: Zain Al Rafeea, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Haita ‘Cedra’ Izzam, Yordanos Shiferaw, Kawsar Al Haddad, Fadi Yousef.
Release Date: 17th May 2018 (Cannes Film Festival)
Trailer:
IMDb Rating: 8.4
Academy Award Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
What the Critics said:
“Labaki devised and shot the film over six months, working with the cast to incorporate their experiences. But she deliberately fractures these gripping if slightly baggy stretches of social realism with sudden returns to courtroom revelations, the supra-real conceit of Zain’s court case puncturing the film’s linearity. It’s a risky gambit but a nimble one, and the angry splinters of legal action enrich the mix.
[…]
There is, however, a palpable anger in the film at the Kafka-worthy plight of Lebanon’s many thousands of unregistered children, who without an ID card have no official existence and no access to schooling, medical care or travel documents. Without ID, illegal immigrants such as Rahil are at constant risk of arrest (Yordanos Shifera, the Eritrean refugee who plays Rahil, was herself detained during filming).
Despite this banked fury, the film doesn’t dip into lurid self-pity or sentimentality. Sharp-eyed editing avoids maudlin close-ups, while Khaled Mouzanar’s soundtrack adds the texture of Ethiopian instruments to its melancholy strings. Shifera’s tender playing is pleasingly understated, while Zain Al Rafeea (who was working as a delivery boy when cast) is simply excellent in the lead role. In a spiky, foul-mouthed performance, he gives Zain the wary, weary adult toughness of a youngster whose childhood has been stolen from him. His 1,000-yard stare as he and Yonas shelter by a shop wall, out of hope and options, may be this year’s most punishing shot.
Capernaum’s odyssey, in which Zain battles the hazards of shantytowns, souks, prisons and betrayals with wily, angry energy, paints him as a resourceful figure fighting impossible odds rather than the passive child victim of charity adverts. If the film’s ending has a preachy, slightly fairytale air, its hero has earned its hopeful shift. The aerial shots of Beirut’s miles of battered, people-packed buildings with which Labaki punctuates the action hint at innumerable similar stories with unhappier outcomes.” Kate Stables, Sight and Sound, March 2019 [updated 23 December 2019]
“When Zain runs away from home […] he encounters cleaning woman Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) who takes pity on him. She is an African immigrant without the right legal papers to be working in the country. She has a baby boy, Jonas, and somehow has to care for him during and between shifts. Rahil press gangs Zain to look after the baby. This prompts some of the most delightful moments in the film. Zain uses all his ingenuity to keep Jonas happy. He plays drums for the toddler. He helps him to watch cartoons on a neighbour’s TV through a cleverly positioned mirror, and even fashions a pram for him from a stolen skateboard. They make a very appealing double act. However, when Rahil fails to come home Zain is forced to take desperate measures to keep the baby fed.
Labaki never pulls back to give us a broader perspective on her characters. We don’t learn why Zain and his family are trapped in poverty or what has brought Rahil to Lebanon. Nor do we discover much about the father of her child. There is no sermonising about Middle Eastern politics. Capernaum veers between harsh social realism and a more playful and escapist style of storytelling. As a result, the film is very uneven. Nonetheless, the best moments here are remarkable. Labaki elicits an astonishing performance from her young lead. He’s an irrepressible figure with such an inbuilt sense of moral decency the film seems upbeat and optimistic, even at its darkest moments.” Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent, Thursday 21 February 2019.
The IFG Ratings:
Mike
Razvan
Paul
Rob
Donnie
Arpatilaos
Dino
IFG Average Rating: 8.36
REMINDERS:
With two films with the same number of votes, please vote in the SECOND poll to decide the film for March. IFG 7, IFG 8 & IFG 9 Film Selection
The January 2020 film will be Everybody Knows (Asghar Farhadi, 2018). So please send me your scores by 31st January 2020.
Oasis of Fear 