Often in life we find ourselves lost in oblivion of sorts, thinking that this is it, this is the end to all saturation levels man could ever achieve. And this oblivion of sorts is broken to pieces with a film like Caphernaum that hits you in the gut and says, “saturation point eh?”. It makes you discover your entitled self you never thought existed.
This is not a piece that tries to belittle your personal problems but wants to tell you what real existential problems mean.
Caphernaum is the story of Zain, an illegal Lebanese immigrant living in Beirut, belonging to a family so poor, that doesn’t know what will they do tomorrow to earn a piece of bread, a family in tatters knee deep in illegal activities and responsible to feed 8 stomachs each day.
The film basically shows what made a 12 year old boy appeal to sue his parents in court.
The film never appears to be shot, but captured. All the elements bringing up the film scene by scene mainly point to it’s beautiful cast, not to mention Zain Al Rafeaa who plays Zain.
The film is an honest representation of life, big and small. Thousands of years after evolution it’s surprising to see families with a constant aim in life: Survive.
A very important aspect of the film is Zain’s kind heart that bleeds for her sister as well as an infant he barely knows. One common connection? They both show him affection, and this 12 year old who is already a 30 year old mature adult in his brain, still only craves this: Affection.
Zain blames his parents for bringing children in the world they can’t feed or bring up, but do you totally bash them? No.
That is the beauty of the film.
It keeps you in a constant circle of cognitive dissonance and leaves you weak in the end, scared to the core, your heart longing to help everyone in need but you also know you’re only gonna crawl back to your privileged cocoon.
Cinematically speaking, the film has beautiful shots or maybe it’s just Director Nadine Labaki’s vision that brings forth the effortless relationship between a boy and an infant on screen. In the beginning of the film, there are many many long shots of Beirut and the locality where Zain lives, only to tell us and remind us what we’re about to get into.
Remember watching films on apartheid and partition with the subconscious comfort of it all being in the past? Caphernaum won’t give you that comfort too, dwelling upon a chapter from the lives of people that currently reside around us, but we’re still too ignorant to notice.
The F Word 