Let me start by saying that Capernaum, by Lebanese
filmmaker, Nadine Labaki, is a remarkable achievement, one of the most
affecting, illuminating, memorable movies of the year. In reviewer jargon, it
is a knockout! The picture won the Grand Prix, the second most prestigious award
at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, is
nominated for best foreign language film at the upcoming Golden Globes and will likely be among the five finalists for the
Oscar in that category as well (currently on the shortlist). It’s just now
being released to select theaters – a slow, rolling release, initially in NYC
and a few CA cities, and over the next couple months to more and more around
the country. (See below for a link to
the schedule.)
It’s about a lot of things, but the story itself is about a
pint-sized twelve-year-old boy named Zain. The film begins and concludes in a courtroom, which
is where we first meet him and where we learn that Zain is suing his parents
for the “crime” of bringing him into the world. The rest of the film takes back in time
through the events that have led to this action.
Zain is a tough, hard-working little guy who looks, physically,
like a nine-year-old, but whose visage, language and attitude are more like
that of a late teenager. Early on, Zain flees from the poverty-stricken,
oppressive life with his neglectful parents, and soon finds himself living by
his (considerable) wits on the streets of Beirut - a vast neighborhood teeming
with refugees and other paperless humans, as well as those who feast on their desperation
and vulnerability. It’s a world with no safety net for anyone. He eventuality wheedles his way into an
arrangement babysitting for Rahil - a single mom and an undocumented immigrant
herself, who’s trying to balance the needs of her beloved toddler son Yonas,
while also holding down an off-the-books restaurant job – in exchange for some
food and a mattress in Rahil’s meager (illegal) shack. When she disappears, Zain
suddenly becomes Yonas’s sole caretaker! Although Zain is remarkably clever and
resourceful, this is an untenable situation; and when, on top of everything
else, he learns … well, I’ll not spoil it with more plot details.
Sure, this sounds depressing and in some ways it is, but it
does not carry the dreary, existential gloom of a movie like De Sica’s cheerless,
life-sapping 1953 masterpiece Umberto D.
Rather, under the guidance of director Labaki and with the astonishing
performance of twelve-year-old lead actor Zain al Rafeea, Capernaum is a fascinating,
riveting joy to watch - tragic and heart-rending on the one hand, while lifting
the spirit on the other by revealing the possibilities of love, caring, compassion
and even a sort-of grace in the least likely places.
Speaking of Vittorio De Sica, the style of the film and even
more so, the style of the filmmaking here brings to mind the great Italian neo-realism
movement of the mid-twentieth century, epitomized by films like his Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Roberto Rosselini’s
war trilogy, especially Germany Year Zero
(1948). Labaki used all non-professional actors, for example, instead seeking
and finding people whose life experiences paralleled that of the characters they
were playing. Rather than have her actors memorize a detailed script, she’d describe
the situation the characters were in and encourage them to improvise their
lines and reactions based on their own lives and personalities. She filmed on
location, rather than on a studio set; setting up real-life dramas faced by people
who must somehow survive without being officially recognized as persons – which
is to say, people much like themselves - in a world where most everyone, legal and
otherwise, is struggling to survive under abominable conditions.
That this world really does exist is evidenced by the
personal stories of many of the players. Zain
al Rafeea, who plays the protagonist Zain, was born in Syria and moved with
his family to Lebanon when he was seven or eight to escape the Syrian Civil
War. Due to the war and then his refugee status in Lebanon, he rarely attended
school, although he occasionally got some home tutoring. He has had to work odd
jobs since he was ten – some of them very much like those his character
performs in the movie. He notes that like his movie character he is a tough guy
who gets into fights a lot, he’s pretty fearless, he curses when he is upset,
and he doesn’t go to school. “But he is a criminal, which I am not,” he adds.
Yordanos Shiferaw,
who plays Rahil, was born in Eritrea in Northeast Africa. As a child, she spent
time in a refugee camp in Ethiopia with her father after her mother died, and
after he died, she was separated from her four sisters and was “constantly displaced”
and often homeless, eventually migrating to Lebanon. She never received a
formal education and has worked odd jobs to sustain herself. Like her character, Shiferaw was arrested for
being an illegal immigrant while making the movie, spending two weeks in jail
before being released with the assistance of Labaki and her husband. The toddler Yonas was portrayed by a little
girl called Treasure, who was born in
Lebanon of a Kenyan mother and Nigerian father. During the shoot, Treasure’s
parents were arrested for lacking papers - at the same time her character lost
his mother in the film.
And so on.
I can’t say enough good things about Zain al Rafeea. It is
amazing that a guy from his background, with zero acting experience can carry a movie so effortlessly – at least so it appears. Ruthe Stein in theSF Chronicle likens Zain to a
twelve-year old James Dean, and there’s something apt about the analogy. He’s
good looking, and now that he’s presumably eating well, maybe he’ll grow a
little. He’s very expressive, especially his eyes, which suggest he’s always
thinking, evaluating, planning his next move. There
is a natural, unforced intensity, a vitality about him; and a casual star
quality that forces us to pay attention to whatever he is doing on screen. This
quality brings to mind the young Jean-Pierre Léaud, in his audacious debut as
Antoine in The 400 Blows (1959) when
he was just fourteen. Léaud
went on to a remarkable career appearing in another ninety or so films. Perhaps
al Rafeea will be so lucky.
The title of the movie, Capernaum, is translated by the distributor
as meaning “Chaos”. In French (and more obscurely in English) it has a variety
of related meanings, such as a confused jumble or disorder, where everything is
upside down. Director Labaki says that the title came to her first, before she
wrote a single word of the screenplay. The word comes from the name of a small biblical
town on the Northwest shore of the Sea of Galilea in what is now Israel, that
is believed to have been a center of Jesus’ ministry, where he performed a
number of miracles.
The movie concludes with something of a miracle as well: a
touch of hopeful optimism. Zain is
getting his picture taken for his first official identity documents, and
prompted by the photographer, he actually smiles.
Two hours one minute Rated R – for language
and some (slight) drug material
Grade: A
Currently in rolling
release to select theaters starting with NYC, SF Bay Area and So. Cal.
Follow this link to the movie’s official
site and click on the “Get Tickets” tab to see when it’s coming to your area.
At the same site, you can watch a trailer for the film.
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