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Capernaum (2018)
8/10
Powerful And (Sadly) Authentic
12 October 2024
Perhaps the most 'important' thing about 2018's Capernaum is that it is the work of a Lebanese woman - writer-director and actor Nadine Labaki. As we follow (Syrian-born playing Lebanese) Zain Al Rafeea's 12-year old, Zain El Hajj, in his quest to survive or, perhaps, even to rise above, his life of abject poverty in Beirut's slums, Capernaum's narrative reflects an increasingly common cinematic depiction of a global underclass. Perhaps the only criticism that could be levelled at Labaki's film is - regardless of how authentic its basis might be - its choice of two children, Zain, and his 'acquired' Ethiopian refugee infant, Yonas, as the chief protagonists here, giving us two sets of longing eyes, have the effect of ramping up potential accusations of 'emotional manipulation' (an accusation not helped by Khaled Mouzanar's frequently maudlin score). All that said, however, Labaki's episodic tale, with the frequent use of cinema-verité techniques (hand-held cameras, fast-cut editing, etc.), is hard-hitting and largely unexploitative and features at its heart a quite stunning performance from Al Rafeea as the film's feisty, creative and mature (beyond his years) hero (there really is no other epithet more suitable!).

Even though we are undoubtedly siding with Zain, as his poverty-stricken family live their hand-to-mouth existence having to make compromises that can only be imagined in richer Western societies, Labaki does an impressive job in painting an even-handed picture of the suffering and resentments built up in Zain's family. Perhaps the only really fanciful narrative construct here is that of Zain's attempt - as depicted in the film's central trial from which Zain's story is told in flashback - to (latterly) sue his parents for neglect (I did wonder whether this set-up had any basis in fact or whether it was principally intended to be of symbolic significance). Otherwise, Labaki's film is highly engaging and all too believable in its grim despair, giving much credence to Zain's ambition to find a way out (with dreams of Sweden). Alongside Al Rafeea, Labaki also coaxes brilliant performances from the infant Boluwatife Treasure Bankole (actually a girl) and from Yordanos Shiferaw as Yonas' mother, Rahil.

Comparator films depicting a society 'underclass' are many and include the Brazilian films 1998's Central Station and 2002's City of God, Bunuel's 1950 film Los Olvidados and, to show that such marginalisation can occur in more wealthy countries, Japanese film-maker Hirokazu Koreeda's films Shoplifters and, particularly, Nobody Knows.
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