Capernaum (Capharnaüm)

About

Director: Nadine Labaki (Lebanon, France, Cyprus, Qatar, UK, 2018, F-Rated)
Certification: 15 |2 h 6 min | Drama | Language: Arabic with English subtitles

In a courtroom a young boy named Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) stands before a judge. He asks to sue his own parents for giving him life. The turn of events that have brought him to this point take us on a journey through his poverty stricken upbringing in Beirut where he lives with his family. Forced to live by his wits in order to survive, his life reaches a turning point when his parents make an unforgivable deal that will see his younger sister married off. Left distraught by this terrible turn of events, Zain takes to the road. Whilst looking for work at a fairground he befriends a young woman who is working illegally as a cleaner and helps to look after her adorable one-year-old baby Jonas. Zain and Jonas form a touching double act but things are about to get much more complicated when a set of circumstances force Zain to make choices that will have huge ramifications.

Nadine Labaki is an acclaimed Lebanese actor and film director, known for Caramel (2007) and Where do we go now? (2011) Capernaum is her third feature film and can be considered a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit, a battle cry for the forgotten, the unwanted and the lost that offers hope in the most unexpected of places. The film was nominated in 2019 to both Bafta and Academy Awards, for Best Film Not in the English Language and Best International Feature Film, respectively. In 2018, Labaki was nominated to the Palme d'Or en Cannes, where she won the Jury Prize, the Prix de la citoyenneté and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.

★★★★ "There is passion and compassion here, and Labaki's film brings home what poverty and desperation mean, and conversely what love and humanity mean" – The Guardian

"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" – Independent

With support from the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) awarding funds from The National Lottery.