Capharnaüm, 2018 © RR
Capernaum and Lebanese society
Seven years after Where Do We Go Now?, a bold comedy drama on religious tension in Lebanon that was selected for Un Certain Regard, Lebanese director Nadine Labaki is back in Competition with Cafarnaum (Capernaum), in which she tackles the issue of mistreated children.
A far cry from the female optimism of Where Do We Go Now? and Caramel, the director's first feature film, Capernaum, written during the Festival de Cannes Résidence, explores the rawer, more unsettling reality of childhood struggle in an unjust society.
The film tells the tale of 12-year-old Zain, who is suing his parents for having brought him into the world without the means to care for him. Yet as well as having been mistreated, the young boy faces another obstacle that impacts on his legitimacy: he was born without a birth certificate. Through Zain's battle for justice, Capernaum acts as a platform for all those living without the basic human rights of education, health and love.
I wanted my film to become my characters, rather than the other way around.
To cut to the heart of this hostile reality and handle the subject with the gravitas it deserves, Nadine Labaki chose to work with actors whose past experiences mirror those tackled in Capernaum. "The actors had to be people who had first-hand experience of the conditions in question […] I owed it to everyone who can relate to the issues it raises," explains the director, who immersed her actors in situations they had already lived.
Somewhere between documentary and fiction, through Capernaum Nadine Labaki continues to explore Lebanese society and offers audiences a considered reflection on the gaps in a faulty system, applicable beyond Lebanon's borders.
