Capernaum
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: December 14, 2018
8.2
USER SCORE
Universal acclaim based on 108 Ratings
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Positive:
95
Mixed:
10
Negative:
3
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9
KayanJan 14, 2019
Capernaum is a movie full of compassion and heart, which is not to be mistaken as poverty porn as some have claimed it to be. It genuinely cares for its characters especially the wonderful Zain Al Rafeea who gives one of the best performancesCapernaum is a movie full of compassion and heart, which is not to be mistaken as poverty porn as some have claimed it to be. It genuinely cares for its characters especially the wonderful Zain Al Rafeea who gives one of the best performances on screen this year. Despite being heartbreaking, the movie manages to give us some funny moments that highlight the sense of humor Lebanese people have. It also manages to give us a glimmer of hope at the end without leaving behind the devastating reality of its subject matter.… Expand
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
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10
GinaKFeb 6, 2019
The “frame” of Capernaum is the court case of Zain, a young Lebanese boy who sues his parents for abandoning him. But what we see for two hours is the incredible story of a selfless, courageous, and incredibly energetic child who does whatThe “frame” of Capernaum is the court case of Zain, a young Lebanese boy who sues his parents for abandoning him. But what we see for two hours is the incredible story of a selfless, courageous, and incredibly energetic child who does what his parents neglect to do – he takes care of a younger child and the child’s mother, going to great lengths to feed the younger boy and keep him safe, eventually saving the baby’s mother and putting the adults in the story to shame. The boundless energy and single-mindedness of Zain are in stark contrast to his lazy and disinterested parents. It’s an incredible and exhausting story, full of the boy’s energy, courage, and goodness in a dark, chaotic world.… Expand
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
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9
Brent_MarchantJan 12, 2019
It's a rare feat that a film is able to simultaneously warm and break your heart at the same time, but this intense, involving Lebanese offering does just that. This heart-tugging saga of children being left to fend for themselves byIt's a rare feat that a film is able to simultaneously warm and break your heart at the same time, but this intense, involving Lebanese offering does just that. This heart-tugging saga of children being left to fend for themselves by unfeeling parents and an unfeeling bureaucracy evokes genuine emotion through a story that's presented with stark realism and not narrative manipulation. Keep the hankie handy for this one -- you'll need it for when the film touches your heart and for when it nearly rips it out of your chest.… Expand
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
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10
SergioMaJan 9, 2019
Amazing movie. Only people deserted from humanism would reject it. Capernaum is saturated with empathy. It will persist in your memory and mostly in your heart for long (to say the least).
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
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9
TVJerryFeb 20, 2019
This is not a pretty movie but it's a beautiful story. It follows a streetwise boy in Beirut who leaves home and survives in the squalor on the streets, even for a period of time with a baby. Ultimately, he's arrested for a crime and goes toThis is not a pretty movie but it's a beautiful story. It follows a streetwise boy in Beirut who leaves home and survives in the squalor on the streets, even for a period of time with a baby. Ultimately, he's arrested for a crime and goes to court, where he sues his parents for giving him live. In the central role, Zain al Rafeea is incredible: full of spunk and grit. The performance (if you can call it that) from the 1-year-old is also astounding. Actually, all of the actors create powerful characters and director Nadine Labaki has captured their chaotic life of poverty with humanity and off-hand skill (the title translates to "Chaos"). Like many foreign films, there's a less-structured narrative and the neorealistic documentary style sometimes feels aimless. Ultimately, this film will break your heart and touch your soul.… Expand
1 of 1 users found this helpful10
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9
MasadaOct 29, 2019
Perhaps a tad too long and a shade stretchy in its concept, yet the film drenches you in the personality that is Zain. The very young actor embodies this role fully.

A rough life, but sweetnes and love is found anywhere, even in the darkestPerhaps a tad too long and a shade stretchy in its concept, yet the film drenches you in the personality that is Zain. The very young actor embodies this role fully.

A rough life, but sweetnes and love is found anywhere, even in the darkest of places. It's only so heartbreaking to see how this young boy tries to do everything he can to do the right thing, and yet the world around him is not letting him. Shockingly real for how it must be in real.

It had me in tears.… Expand
1 of 1 users found this helpful10
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2
SarinakediDec 16, 2018
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. When journalists question Labaki about her “film”, she mentions the great political cause that drove her to make it. She speaks of the misery she witnessed, the poor street children whom she drove by one day, her lucky young actor who was granted a visa to Norway thanks to her impactful film, etc. But she carefully avoids talking about… her film. She’d much rather talk about everything around it, leaving aside any potential ideas regarding her actual cinema. Why? Because she doesn’t have a distinct cinematic voice, so she really doesn’t have anything interesting to say about her own film. And because, as Godard said, “cinema is a form that thinks and a thought that forms”, this complete lack of voice is obvious in her film, which is full of gimmicks, superfluous scenes, and an outrageous “cathartic happy end” worthy of a propaganda film: a (deplorable) government, a lawyer (shamelessly played by Labaki herself) and the media (known for their unprofessionalism) all contribute to rescue the hero, punish the bad guys and restore order and justice. (I say the Lebanese government is “deplorable” because it still practices torture, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, among a variety of other human rights violations). Formally, the film is shot with a Steadicam and the few drone shots are just there to highlight urban poverty. The fast-paced editing doesn’t leave the audience time to actually look at faces and find genuine expressions in them. Our eyes are never free to wander around the frame - viewers don’t even have time to think, because they’re being held hostage by this chaotic and tearjerking mise-en-scene which desperately begs for their empathy but quickly becomes irritating.

Labaki invented a new genre: the cinema-mensonge. Canne's Thierry Frémaux made her famous, probably for strategic reasons. But that’s his problem. Film critics and cinephiles are not blind, and they saw the film for what it is: a calculated exploitation of misery made by an uninspired and narcissistic filmmaker.… Expand
1 of 12 users found this helpful111
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10
NightReviewsFeb 12, 2019
In the early chapters of my life, Lebanon was an elusive figure of my imagination. Being born and raised in Toronto, I would hear stories of my homeland from my cousins, uncles and grandmothers. From their descriptions of the countryside, myIn the early chapters of my life, Lebanon was an elusive figure of my imagination. Being born and raised in Toronto, I would hear stories of my homeland from my cousins, uncles and grandmothers. From their descriptions of the countryside, my homeland played in my mind like a fantastic Wild West; the stories always had an underlying sense that the country was a type of Eden, a magical place with magical people, a gem placed perfectly in the midst of chaos.

When I made my first trip to the country I was twelve years old. My familial roots trace back to the northern part of the country to a town called Joub Janine in a region known as the Beqaa Valley which is nestled right below the currently devastatingly war-torn Syria. My experiences were life altering; a colossal shift to my consciousness occurred about the world we live in and how that sucker spins, how you can enter a world so electric and alien to your own world with just a 12 hour flight by plane.

My first visit due to age was made up of primarily the country’s decadent cuisine and visits to my family.

I went back at the age of seventeen with my brother for three weeks, and it was then that my Wild West fantasy began to take true form in reality. Streets cross each other making a labyrinth of life, electric lines lay over and under and all around each other, looming above the streets like a friendly spider’s web. The youth is passionate and wild, full of life and wisdom gathered from their surroundings complete with beautiful flowing hair and beautifully wrapped Hijabs rest on the woman as they socialize, smoking tobacco out of hookah pipes that give off the most fragrant of aromas. This aroma follows you, like the sun that stays on your shoulders with strength, or the full flavored tobacco that wafts through the streets and barber shop. The barber shop that is run by a man who’s lost his tongue in the war yet he still knows just what you want from your hand signals. Lebanese like to use their hands when they talk, they throw them down towards the floor like they are letting go of weights and point as if they were being cut from a Tintin comic strip. Firearms are readily available and commonplace yet no one ever shoots each other, they are carried for their destined use of protection, and perhaps the occasional couple of discharges in the many farm fields of the country. Seatbelts are ignored and so are road signs, if any, yet everyone seems to get along just fine. Some ride in German automobiles while some entire families ride on one motorized scooter, newborns and all.

Capernaum, the newest film by Nadine Labaki shows just how exceptionally talented the renowned Lebanese auteur is at capturing that land that holds my heart, and hers as well. Her style is, if comparable, reminiscent of the flavour of Larry Clark’s Kids, with a dash of Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone, and many hints of Vittorio Di Sica’s brilliant Umberto D. The film is poignant; revolving completely around the world of a twelve-year old boy named Zain (Zain Al Rafeea). He lives in a steamy, crammed apartment with his band of siblings, and neglectful mother (Fadi Yousef) and father (Kawsar Al Haddad) in a war-torn neighborhood in Beirut. His parents out of devastating desperation give their daughter to the landlord of their building in hopes of leniency with their payment of rent, an act that naturally enrages Zain, causing him to run away from his family into the abyss of Beirut.

In his journey of self-preservation destiny he meets an Ethiopian migrant worker Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw). Rahil has an infant child of her own name Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole), who gives such a contribution to the organic documentary inspired style that is truly remarkable. Rahil takes Zain under her care for some time providing some of the most beautifully shot scenes of intimacy in cinema over the past little while. The film’s heart is transcended through Zain and Yonas; their acting is so poetic, watching these two children interact, with the slightest of movements, give elusive kinetic energy that never feels premeditated in the slightest.

Drama ultimately knocks on the films door and heartbreak occurs with Zain climatically commits a violent act causing him to stand in court with his parents. He declares hatred for his parents and seeks justice for them giving him life when they have no intention to properly love or care for him, as well as his siblings. This embodies the idea of Capernaum which is according to Libaki “to give a voice to children who otherwise do not have one.”

I have watched a select couple of brief scenes from Labaki’s previous films, yet never have I seen one in its entirety and this was quite the film to start me off. The opening sequence is melodious; we see Zain with a number of other children, horse playing through the tangles of flights of stairs and street corners of the neighbourhood.… Expand
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8
gracjanskiSep 26, 2019
a very serious movie that made me a bit annoying, because I dont like to see so much tragedy caused by idiots.
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5
JLuis_001Feb 27, 2020
The passivity of the narrative is problematic and resorting to emotional manipulation doesn't help the film at all.

There were good topics here, unfortunately the director didn't know how to exploit them properly.
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7
Bertaut1Mar 8, 2019
I wouldn't call it entertaining per se, but it's certainly provocative

Taking as its subject the horrific plight of guttersnipe children in the slums of Beirut, Capharnaüm (the word means "a place marked by a disorderly accumulation ofI wouldn't call it entertaining per se, but it's certainly provocative

Taking as its subject the horrific plight of guttersnipe children in the slums of Beirut, Capharnaüm (the word means "a place marked by a disorderly accumulation of objects") is the kind of film of which a superficial reading might suggest miserablism at best, and "poverty porn" at worst. The third film from Lebanese writer/actress/director Nadine Labaki, the film is written by Labaki, Michelle Keserwany, and Jihad Hojeily and presents a milieu in which people are discardable, children are bought and sold for a few chickens; 11-year-old girls are married off so their family can pay the rent; babies are fed on ice cubes covered in sugar; refugees roam the streets; mental illness goes untreated; people without a Lebanese identity card don't officially exist. The film works because it never feels like it's exploiting, patronising, or trivialising the poverty it depicts, never attempting to manipulate the audience into feeling a preconceived emotion. On the contrary, it's notable for just how unsentimental it is. However, it's also deeply humanist, with compassion in its DNA and a quiet rage at its core.

Telling the story of Zain El Hajj (Zain Al Rafeea), a young boy from the slums who sues his parents for bringing him into the world, 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 (Haita 'Cedra' Izzam). 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.

Utilising 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 his 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 just how the massive city is overwhelming Zain, and again, tying us to his subjectivity.

Labaki sets the tone for the film to come in the first shot, as we see Zain, filthy dirty, in only his vest and underwear. It's subsequently driven home multiple times that life is almost worthless here - Sahar is sold for rent money, Rahil is encouraged to sell Yonas in return for forged migrant documents. This is a world in which people think of children as commodities. 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. Nevertheless, 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, the framing device of the trial is awkwardly realised, and for the most part, serves only to interrupt the far more compelling story of Zain, Rahil, and Yonas. The scenes in court also come across as more heavily scripted than everything else. 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 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 didactic plot machination. There is also something of a sense that Labaki overloads the story, pushing just one too many hardships on Zain, 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 the socio-political content.

Never feeling exploitative, nor glorifying the poverty at its centre, Capharnaüm isn't even especially sentimental. 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 And empathy.… Expand
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10
ThatFilmGuy20Feb 27, 2019
Capernaum is a gutwrenching story that will leave you with tears in your eyes, this is a brilliant exercise in realism that explores its theme with no boundaries or limits, it dives in and it tells a poignant and a raw story that will shakeCapernaum is a gutwrenching story that will leave you with tears in your eyes, this is a brilliant exercise in realism that explores its theme with no boundaries or limits, it dives in and it tells a poignant and a raw story that will shake your very existence with its powerful imagery that tells a story of its own, when it comes to realism in film it's always compromisable but here it's the whole essence of the film, everything is centered on reality and how cruel it can be, Capernaum doesn't take shortcuts as well, it tells it as it is, Nadine Labaki the director carefully and delicately let her sequences do a lot of talking even when dialogue is absent, it is articulate to a point where words are not needed to make a statement, Labaki's cast is nothing short of perfect, Zain who plays the kid in the film performed flawlessly, he moved me to tears many times throughout the film with his words and mannerisms, I love how everything was authentic to a point where you'll actually believe that you're watching a real life documentary about real life people, that's how powerful Capernaum is, it captured a state of humanity that often people deliberately chose to ignore just because they can't process the situation or understand it, films like these are necessary to remind people that we're all human being and we all need help no matter who we are and how much money or power we have, we were created to work thorough our problems and help each other along the way, sadly empathy has become a rare commodity in the world we live nowadays. Capernaum is daring and it screams realism, I can honestly say that this is one of the best films I have ever seen in my life, in other words, this is a work of art.… Expand
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10
ReallythatbadFeb 23, 2019
Nadine Labaki aspiring Labenese film director finds herself tackling a gut-wrenching surreal drama. with some of the best performances from a 12 year old to date.
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8
SkodaApr 2, 2019
As soon as I went about watching this movie, it stroke me as being very akin to City of God. Even though it is not as splendid as that movie, I took a lot of delight from watching Capernaum, which fully deserves the award for the best foreignAs soon as I went about watching this movie, it stroke me as being very akin to City of God. Even though it is not as splendid as that movie, I took a lot of delight from watching Capernaum, which fully deserves the award for the best foreign picture. Personally, the movie made me realised all the hardships poor people need to face unfairly, which the rest of us often tend to forget. That chief reason that I gave it an 8 is the final, which didn't really live up to my expectations. I was looking forward to something more meaningful and memorable perhaps, particularly in terms of the boy's destiny. But broadly speaking - actors' outstanding performance(all the more incredible and astonishing considering that they are not really professional actors, but people who went through exactly the sort of experiences that the film depicted), gripping plot, deep emotional impact, a life lesson.… Expand
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5
Mauro_LanariDec 5, 2019
(Mauro Lanari)
The initial bomb is only fictitious: a 12-year-old legally accuses his parents for bringing him into the world. If it were indeed a condemnation of the "Geworfenheit"/thrownness/dejection, parents would also be victims and the(Mauro Lanari)
The initial bomb is only fictitious: a 12-year-old legally accuses his parents for bringing him into the world. If it were indeed a condemnation of the "Geworfenheit"/thrownness/dejection, parents would also be victims and the problem would shift to parenthood as an acquired and not ontological role. Oliver Twist, Antoine Doinel and Bruno Ricci ("Bicycle Thieves") are one thing, Bogomils and Albigenses/Cathars are another one. The misunderstanding is clarified within the 2 hours during which socio-economic, ethnocultural and geopolitical analysis takes over: the director Labaki is married with two children and keeps us to such "radical **** distinctions… Expand
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8
DawdlingPoetNov 20, 2021
This is a quite sombre, touching film which reminded me a little of Slumdog Millionaire, only without the music. It'd take a hard person not to feel sorry for the main character, Zain. It's frustrating and thought-provoking, with aThis is a quite sombre, touching film which reminded me a little of Slumdog Millionaire, only without the music. It'd take a hard person not to feel sorry for the main character, Zain. It's frustrating and thought-provoking, with a particularly poignant ending I felt. I would recommend this film, as long as you know that its quite gritty and dark in tone - a good piece of social commentary I suppose.… Expand
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8
ehuismanJul 5, 2020
Sat for ten minutes trying to think of any weaknesses. Other than the baby's performance being overly melodramatic, I couldn't find any. This film is flawlessly uneasy.
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8
myratMar 23, 2022
The movie is a 'show. don't talk.' kind of defence for Zain in court. It makes you feel like a by-watcher on the street.
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9
nikos3194Jul 24, 2023
A powerful and thought-provoking movie that explores the themes of poverty, injustice, and the human condition. It’s a movie that will make you think deeply about the world we live in and the struggles that people face every day. The film isA powerful and thought-provoking movie that explores the themes of poverty, injustice, and the human condition. It’s a movie that will make you think deeply about the world we live in and the struggles that people face every day. The film is a must-see for anyone who loves great storytelling.… Expand
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