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Capernaum

Capernaum is the 6th film in the home streaming series (it's been over 7 weeks since I was in a cinema) and it's currently showing on SBS on Demand. It's a Lebanese social drama from 2018, directed by Nadine Labaki and starring a brilliant collection of first-time actors - the lead kid Zain, played by Zain Al Rafeea (a young Syrian refugee spotted on the street by the director), Yordanos Shiferaw as Rahil, and her baby Yanos, a phenomenal 'performance' by Boluwatife Treasure Bankole. The chemistry between the two children is astounding, it seems the long time on set helped with some natural bonding.

Capernaum is a strange film in that, as bleak as it is, it left me feeling kind of....what's the word....happy? There's a bucket on a skateboard full of horrific things that happen throughout the film but ultimately, there remained a sense of hope, specifically for the three protagonists. The film begins with Zain going from prison to court, in order to sue his parents for bringing him into the world and then proceeds to show, in flashback, how events led him to this point.

There are some superb moments in this film (Cockroach man and Corn Cob lady attempting to fake sponsor Rahil is one of the standouts) but they're basically in thrall to the underlying passage of Zain; trying to stay alive by skiving, lying, breaking the law, all the while watching out for people who do right by him. It's not until about one third of the way through that he smiles for the first time and it's almost shocking. This is mirrored at the climax in a bittersweet photo ID shoot.

Apparently, Capernaum is the name of an ancient town on the Sea of Galilee but has come to mean 'chaos'. A fairly apt title for a film choc-full of folk scrapping away, not really living, more existing, as one character says, like insects.

See also:

An echo or two in another recent Lebanese film, The Insult (2017), directed by Ziad Doueiri and, not as extreme, but a similar central character in Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows (1959).

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