Capharnaüm
Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, returns to big screen with her heart wrenching third feature film, Capharnaüm , which received a twenty-minute standing ovation at Cannes this year before winning the Prix du Jury. The movie begins at a trial where a young boy named Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) who is already serving a five-year sentence for stabbing someone sues his parents for “giving him life”. Zain doesn’t know his exact age. He must be 12 or 13. He doesn’t have a birth certificate or an ID card. He can’t benefit for basic medical care or register for a passport because by law he simply doesn’t exist. Through a serie of flashbacks accentuated by multiple cuts and shaky camera movements Labaki unveils the harrowing struggles of the main character in the slums of Lebanon. To help feed his half-a-dozen siblings, Zain works as a delivery man for the convenience store grocer who is also his parent’s landlord and is far too keen on his little sister Sahar (Cedra Izam). When...
