Review | Capharnaüm film review: Lebanon’s Oscar nominee a vivid account of the horrors of modern times
- Child abuse, human trafficking, extreme poverty and the problems faced by undocumented individuals are the issues tackled in this dark drama
- A downbeat but important film, it was nominated for best foreign-language film at the 2019 Oscars
4/5 stars
A depressing but very necessary film, Capharnaüm deals head-on with many of the horrors of modern times: child abuse, human trafficking, extreme poverty and the problems faced by undocumented individuals.
A nominee for best foreign-language film at the 2019 Oscars, Lebanese director Nadine Labaki’s third feature takes a miniature view of these big issues, focusing on the novel idea of a child suing his abusive parents on the grounds that they shouldn’t have brought him into the world if they were not planning to care for him.
In spite of this clever take on the situation, Capharnaüm is not unduly philosophical in nature, and spends most of its running time depicting the terrible things the child has to face, rather than dwelling on the theoretical ins-and-outs of parenting.
The story begins in the courtroom, and then flashes back to show how the characters got there. The young Zain (Zain al Rafeea, a 12-year-old Syrian refugee who had never acted before) lives in extreme poverty in the slums of Beirut with his inept and abusive parents and numerous siblings. Zain’s worry is that his 11-year-old sister will be married off for a price to help with the family’s income.
