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Capernaum (film): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:49, 5 February 2019

Capernaum
Film poster
Directed by	Nadine Labaki
Written by	Nadine Labaki Jihad Hojaily Michelle Keserwany Georges Khabbaz Khaled Mouzanar
Produced by	Michel Merkt Khaled Mouzanar
Starring	Zain Al Rafeea Yordanos Shiferaw Boluwatife Treasure Bankole
Cinematography	Christopher Aoun
Edited by	Konstantin Bock
Music by	Khaled Mouzanar
Production company	Mooz Films
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics[1]
Release dates	17 May 2018 (2018-05-17) (Cannes) 20 September 2018 (2018-09-20) (Lebanon)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	Lebanon
Languages	Arabic Amharic
Budget	$4 million[2]
Box office	$3.971 million[3][4][5]

Capernaum (Arabic: کفرناحوم), also known as Capharnaüm, is a 2018 Lebanese drama film written and directed by Nadine Labaki. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival,^[6][7] where it won the Jury Prize.^[8][9] The film received a 15-minute standing ovation following its premiere at Cannes on 17 May 2018.^[10] The film is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.^[11]

Sony Pictures Classics, which had previously distributed Labaki's Where Do We Go Now?, bought North American and Latin American distribution rights for the film, while Wild Bunch retained the international rights.^[12]

• Zain Al Rafeea as Zain
• Yordanos Shiferaw as Rahil
• Boluwatife Treasure Bankole as Yonas
• Kawthar Al Haddad as Souad
• Fadi Kamel Youssef as Selim
• Nour el Husseini as Assadd
• Cedra Izam as Sahar

Inside a court, Zain, (played by Zain Al Rafeea), a 12-year-old Lebanese boy, is brought before the judge. To the question: "Why are you attacking your parents in court?", Zain answers: "For giving me life!" The film retraces the incredible journey of this child in search of his identity and who rebels against the life that was imposed on him.

Screenwriter and director Nadine Labaki described the conception of the film:

At the end of the day, those children are really paying a very high price for our conflicts, and our wars, and our systems, and our stupid decisions, and governments. I felt the need to talk about the problem, and I was thinking, if those children could talk, or could express themselves, what would they say? What would they tell us, this society that ignores them?^[13]

Producer Khaled Mouzanar took out a mortgage on his house to raise a budget.^[14]

Zain Al Rafeea, a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon for eight years, was 12 during production.^[15] Al Rafeea's character, Zain, is named for him.^[13] Many of the other actors were novices, which Labaki described as necessary because she wanted "a real struggle on that big screen".^[14] Although Labaki is an actress, she gave herself only a small role, preferring the novice actors drawing from their experiences.^[16]

Shooting lasted six months and resulted in a cut 12 hours long; it was subject to edits over two years.^[15]

Capernaum has a 84% approval rating based on reviews by 80 critics on Rotten Tomatoes.^[17]OnMetacritic.^[18] , the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on reviews from 28 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews". Upon its release in France, Capernaum was praised by the audience and scored 4.5/5 stars on Allocine based on more than 1405 reviews.^[19] Variety's Jay Weissberg judged Capernaum to represent a substantial improvement in Labaki's direction, bringing "intelligence and heart" to its issue.^[20] The Hollywood Reporter critic Leslie Felperin called it an effective melodrama.^[21]OnVulture.com, Emily Yoshida called Zain Al Rafeea "a startling, unforgettable presence". Yoshida also interpreted it as "one of the most forcefully pro-choice films I’ve ever seen", though abortion is not mentioned.^[22]

A.A. Dowd wrote a mixed review on The A.V. Club, calling it a "sadness pile that confuses nonstop hardship for drama, begging for our tears at every moment".^[23] IndieWire critic David Ehrlich also wrote a mixed review, calling it "an astonishing work of social-realism that’s diluted (and ultimately defeated) by an array of severe miscalculations".^[24]

The film was selected as the Lebanese entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards.^[25][26] It made the December shortlist in 2018,^[27] before being nominated for the Academy Award in January 2019.^[11]

• List of submissions to the 91st Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Lebanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• CapernaumatIMDb
• CapernaumatAllMovie
• CapernaumatRotten Tomatoes