Capernaum Dvd

Capernauma is a 2018 Lebanese drama film directed by Nadine Labaki and produced by Khaled Mouzanar. The screenplay was written by Labaki, Jihad Hojaily and Michelle Keserwany from a story by Labaki, Hojaily, Keserwany, Georges Khabbaz and Khaled Mouzanar. The film stars Syrian refugee child actor Zain Al Rafeea as Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old living in the slums of Beirut. The film is told in flashback format, focusing on Zain’s life, including his encounter with an Ethiopian immigrant Rahil and her infant son Yonas, and leading up to his attempt to sue his parents for child neglect.

The film debuted at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or, and won the Jury Prize. The film received a 15-minute standing ovation following its premiere at Cannes on 17 May 2018. Sony Pictures Classics, which had previously distributed Labaki’s Where Do We Go Now?, bought North American and Latin American distribution rights for the film, while Wild Bunch retained the international rights. It received a wider release on 20 September 2018.

The film received critical acclaim, with particular praise given to Labaki’s direction, Al Rafeea’s performance and the film’s “documentary-like realism”. Writing for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott named it as one of the greatest films of 2018. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, among several other accolades.

Capernaum is the highest-grossing Arabic film, and the highest-grossing Middle-Eastern film of all time, after becoming a sleeper hit at the international box office with over $68 million worldwide, against a production budget of $4 million. Its largest international market is China, where it became a surprise blockbuster with over $54 million.

Plot

Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old from the slums of Beirut, is serving a five-year prison sentence in Roumieh Prison for stabbing someone whom he refers to as a “son of a bitch”. Neither Zain nor his parents know his exact date of birth as they never received an official birth certificate. Zain is brought before a court, having decided to take civil action against his parents, his mother, Souad, and his father, Selim. When asked by the judge why he wants to sue his parents, Zain answers “Because I was born” (or, more precisely, “because you had me”). Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities process a group of migrant workers, including a young Ethiopian woman named Rahil.

The story then flashes back several months to before Zain was arrested. Zain lives with his parents and takes care of at least seven younger siblings who make money in various schemes instead of going to school. He uses forged prescriptions to purchase tramadol pills from multiple pharmacies, which they crush the pills into a powder and soak them into clothes, which his mother sells to drug addicts in prison. Zain also works as a delivery boy for Assad, the family’s landlord, and the owner of a local market stall. One morning, Zain helps his 11-year-old sister Sahar to hide the evidence of her first period, fearing she will be married to Assad if her parents discover that she can now become pregnant.

The entrance to Luna Park, Ras Beirut, where Zain meets Rahil.
Zain makes plans to escape with Sahar and begin a new life. However, his suspicions are proven correct as her parents marry off Sahar to Assad in exchange for two chickens. Furious at his parents, Zain runs away and catches a bus, where he meets an elderly man dressed in a knock-off Spider-Man costume who calls himself “Cockroach Man”. Cockroach Man gets off the bus at the Luna Park in Ras Beirut and Zain follows him, spending the rest of the day at the park. While on the ferris wheel, Zain sees a beautiful sunset and begins to cry. Later, Zain meets Rahil, an Ethiopian migrant worker who is working as a cleaner at the park. She takes pity on Zain and agrees to let him live with her at her tin shack in exchange for Zain babysitting her undocumented infant son Yonas when she is at work.

Rahil’s forged migrant documents are due to expire soon and she doesn’t have enough money to pay her forger Aspro for new documents. Aspro offers to forge the documents for free if she gives Yonas to him so that Yonas can be adopted. Rahil refuses, despite Aspro’s claims that Yonas’ undocumented status will mean he can never receive an education or be employed. Rahil’s documents expire and she is arrested by Lebanese authorities. After she doesn’t return to the apartment, Zain panics. Several days pass, and Zain begins looking after Yonas on his own, claiming that they are brothers, and begins selling tramadol again to earn money.

One day, while at Souk Al Ahad, where Aspro is based, Zain meets a young girl named Maysoun. Maysoun is a Syrian refugee and claims that Aspro has agreed to send her to Sweden. Zain demands that Aspro send him to Sweden as well, which Aspro agrees to do if Zain gives him Yonas. Zain reluctantly agrees, and Aspro tells him that he will need some form of identification to become a refugee. Zain returns to his parents and demands they give him his identification, to which they laughingly tell him he doesn’t have any. Having disowned him for leaving, they kick him out of their house, but not before revealing that Sahar had recently died due to difficulties with her pregnancy. Furious, Zain steals a knife and stabs Assad. He is arrested and sentenced to five years at Roumieh Prison.

While in prison, Zain learns that Souad 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 continuing to have children when they cannot take care of them. When the judge asks him what he wants from his parents, he says “I want them to stop having children”. Zain also alleges 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. The photographer cracks a joke—”It’s your ID card, not your death certificate”—and Zain manages to smile.

Cast

Cast and director at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
Zain Al Rafeea as Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old boy living in the slums of Beirut
Yordanos Shiferaw as Rahil (also known as Tigest), an undocumented Ethiopian woman who works as a cleaner at an amusement park
Boluwatife Treasure Bankole (a girl) as Yonas, Rahil’s undocumented son
Kawthar Al Haddad as Souad, Zain’s mother
Fadi Kamel Youssef as Selim, Zain’s father
Nour el Husseini as Assad, the owner of a local market and Sahar’s husband
Alaa Chouchnieh as Aspro, Rahil’s forger
Cedra Izam as Sahar, Zain’s sister
Nadine Labaki as Nadine, Zain’s lawyer
Joseph Jimbazian as Mr. Harout (also known as Cockroach Man), an employee at an amusement park
Farah Hasno as Maysoun, a young Syrian refugee