Capernaum (“Chaos”) is a heart-wrenching and harrowing account of an ‘approximately 12-year-old boy’ (even his parents don’t know his exact age, as they never got a birth certificate) Zain, navigating through his world with a dignity, resilience and wisdom well beyond his years. The title refers to an ancient city on the Sea of Galilee whose name now stands for anarchy and disorder. The story begins with young boys racing amidst traffic, pretending to shoot one another with sticks and plastic bottles. Central to the action is Zain, laughing in that joyful moment of enjoying a game. Quickly, we move to a court of law where the judge (played by an actual retired Lebanese jurist, Elias Khoury) asks him the question: ‘Why are you attacking your parents in court?’, Zain answers: ‘For giving me life!’ The film retraces the incredible journey of Zain, his family and those he encounters in search of his identity and his rebellion against the life that was imposed on him.

Nadine Labaki was born in Lebanon and grew up during the years of the civil war. In the making of Capernaum, she paired with the Lebanese music composer, Khaled Mouzanar, whose soundtrack for the film is as haunting as the tale itself. Labaki and her screen writer, Jihad Hojeeily, tell a relentless story that reaches the very soul of every character, capturing the lives of Lebanon’s displaced immigrant population. She chose the cast of non-professionals whose backgrounds parallel the characters they portray. Zain, (convincingly played by Zain Al Rafeea) commands every scene with his combination of rage, humour, compassion and sheer wilfulness to survive in a desperately poor environment. He is not the victim that his mother, Souad (Kawsar Al Haddad) and father Selim (Fadi Yousef) are as they prepare to sell their oldest daughter, Sahar (Cedra Izzam) as a child bride. With the camera work of Christopher Aoun staying at the level of the children’s world, the despair from their vision gives this film an amplified grittiness, rightly earning it the 2018 winner of Cannes Film Festival’ s Grand Jury Prize.

Zain’s story takes him on an equally unsettling path when he encounters an Ethiopian cleaning woman Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw). Zain takes on the guardian role of her toddler, Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole) which brings this gem of a film to all new levels of desperation in the slums of Beirut. When she is arrested, Zain takes on the role of protector of Yonas, but they ultimately fall into the snare of Aspro (Alaa Chouchnieh) who is running a human trafficking ring.

The story is intertwined with courtroom scenes which help to reveal the fullness of Zain’s struggle. Ultimately he takes his parents to court, suing them for ever giving birth to him. Labaki skilfully, poetically captures this boy’s tale, awakening us to what is normal in an area of the world where poverty and social structure offer daily barriers to survival. The storyline is very cleverly revealed, pulling the audience deeper and deeper into the harsh realities of this boy’s attempt to make a better life for himself.