IT TAKES COURAGE TO HOPE.

In Lebanon, 12-year-old Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) is brought before a judge and tells him that he wants to sue his parents for bringing him into this world. The director’s third film received almost universal acclaim and certainly feels authentic thanks to Nadine Labaki’s research and a cast of amateurs who bring their own experience of the miserable conditions depicted in the film. That includes Al Rafeea in the lead, a real-life Syrian refugee who’s perfect as the headstrong boy who angrily abandons his family. Labaki takes us along for a rough journey, full of suffering and danger for any kid; a tad contrived, but touching.

2018-Lebanon. 126 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Michel Merkt, Khaled Mouzanar. Directed by Nadine Labaki. Screenplay: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany, Georges Khabbaz, Khaled Mouzanar. Cast: Zain Al Rafeea (Zain), Yordanos Shiferaw (Rahil), Kawsar Al Haddad (Souad), Fadi Yousef, Haita Cedra Izzam, Alaa Chouchnieh… Nadine Labaki.

Trivia: Original title: Capharnaüm.

Cannes: Jury Prize. 

Last word: “[Al Rafeea] escaped the war in Syria, he came to Lebanon, he’s been living for the past 8 years in Lebanon in very, very difficult circumstances and he didn’t go to school, he grew up on the streets and growing up on the streets, you see so much. You see so much violence, you see so much abuse. He was personally exposed to a lot of things and he has this wisdom of children who have lost their childhood, who have become adults, and that’s how he was able to be so good. Because he was doing something he knows.” (Labaki, Hammer to Nail)

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