Capernaum (Arabic: كفرناحوم‎, romanized: Cafarnaüm) is a 2018 Lebanese drama film directed by Nadine Labaki and produced by Khaled Mouzanar. The screenplay was written by Labaki, Jihad Hojaily and Michelle Keserwany from a story by Labaki, Hojaily, Keserwany, Georges Khabbaz and Khaled Mouzanar. The film stars Syrian refugee child actor Zain Al Rafeea as Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old living in the slums of Beirut. Capernaum is told in flashback format, focusing on Zain s life, including his encounter with an Ethiopian immigrant Rahil and her infant son Yonas, and leading up to his attempt to sue his parents for child neglect.

The film debuted at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected to compete for the Palme d Or, and won the Jury Prize. Capernaum received a 15-minute standing ovation following its premiere at Cannes on 17 May 2018. 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. It received a wider release on 20 September 2018.

Capernaum received critical acclaim, with particular praise given to Labaki s direction, Al Rafeea s performance and the film s documentary-like realism . Writing for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott named it as one of the greatest films of 2018. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, among several other accolades.

Capernaum is both the highest-grossing Arabic and Middle-Eastern film of all time, after becoming a sleeper hit at the international box office with over $68 million worldwide, against a production budget of $4 million. Its largest international market is China, where it became a surprise blockbuster with over $54 million.

Plot

Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old from the slums of Beirut, is serving a five-year prison sentence in Roumieh Prison for stabbing someone whom he refers to as a son of a bitch . Neither Zain nor his parents know his exact date of birth as they never applied/received an official birth certificate. Zain is brought before a court, having decided to take civil action against his parents, his mother, Souad, and his father, Selim. When asked by the judge why he wants to sue his parents, Zain answers Because I was born (or, more precisely, because you had me ). Meanwhile, Lebanese authorities process a group of migrant workers, including a young Ethiopian woman named Rahil.

The story then flashes back several months to before Zain was arrested. Zain lives with his parents and takes care of at least seven younger siblings who make money in various schemes instead of going to school. He uses forged prescriptions to purchase tramadol pills from multiple pharmacies, which they crush the pills into a powder and soak them into clothes, which his brother sells to drug addicts in prison. Zain also works as a delivery boy for Assad, the family s landlord, and the owner of a local market stall. One morning, Zain helps his 11-year-old sister Sahar to hide the evidence of her first period, fearing she will be married to Assad if her parents discover that she can now become pregnant.

Zain makes plans to escape with Sahar and begin a new life. However, his suspicions are proven correct as her parents marry off Sahar to Assad in exchange for two chickens. Furious at his parents, Zain runs away and catches a bus, where he meets an elderly man dressed in a knock-off Spider-Man costume who calls himself Cockroach Man . Cockroach Man gets off the bus at the Luna Park in Ras Beirut and Zain follows him, spending the rest of the day at the park. While on the ferris wheel, Zain sees a beautiful sunset and begins to cry. Later, Zain meets Rahil, an Ethiopian migrant worker who is working as a cleaner at the park. She takes pity on Zain and agrees to let him live with her at her tin shack in exchange for Zain babysitting her undocumented infant son Yonas when she is at work.

Rahil s forged migrant documents are due to expire soon and she does not have enough money to pay her forger Aspro for new documents. Aspro offers to forge the documents for free if she gives Yonas to him so that Yonas can be adopted. Rahil refuses, despite Aspro s claims that Yonas undocumented status will mean he can never receive an education or be employed. Rahil s documents expire and she is arrested by Lebanese authorities. After she does not return to the shack, Zain panics. Several days pass, and Zain begins looking after Yonas on his own, claiming that they are brothers, and begins selling tramadol again to earn money.

One day, while at Souk Al Ahad, where Aspro is based, Zain meets a young girl named Maysoun. Maysoun is a Syrian refugee and claims that Aspro has agreed to send her to Sweden. Zain demands that Aspro send him to Sweden as well, which Aspro agrees to do if Zain gives him Yonas. Zain reluctantly agrees, and Aspro tells him that he will need some form of identification to become a refugee. Zain returns to his parents and demands they give him his identification, to which they laughingly tell him he doesn t have any. Having disowned him for leaving, they kick him out of their house, but not before revealing that Sahar had recently died due to difficulties with her pregnancy. Furious, Zain takes a large knife, runs out the house and stabs Assad. Zain is arrested and sentenced to five years at Roumieh Prison.

While in prison, during a visit from his mother, Zain learns that Souad is pregnant yet again and plans to name the child Sahar. Disgusted by his mother s lack of remorse for her daughter s death, he tells her not to visit again, calling her heartless . During a TV show requesting call-in commentary on child abuse, Zain contacts the media and says that he is tired of parents neglecting their children and plans to sue his parents for continuing to have children when they cannot take care of them. When the judge asks him what he wants from his parents, he says I want them to stop having children , as he does not want them to suffer the neglect he has. Zain also alleges that Aspro is adopting children illegally and mistreating them. Aspro s house is raided and the children and parents are reunited, including Yonas and Rahil.

Zain s photo is taken for his ID card. The photographer cracks a joke at Zain s sour disposition— It s your ID card, not your death certificate —and Zain manages a smile.

Cast

• Zain Al Rafeea as Zain El Hajj, a 12-year-old boy living in the slums of Beirut
• Yordanos Shiferaw as Rahil (also known as Tigest), an undocumented Ethiopian woman who works as a cleaner at an amusement park
• Boluwatife Treasure Bankole (a girl) as Yonas, Rahil s undocumented son
• Kawthar Al Haddad as Souad, Zain s mother
• Fadi Kamel Youssef as Selim, Zain s father
• Nour el Husseini as Assad, the owner of a local market and Sahar s husband
• Alaa Chouchnieh as Aspro, Rahil s forger
• Cedra Izam as Sahar, Zain s sister
• Nadine Labaki as Nadine, Zain s lawyer
• Joseph Jimbazian as Mr. Harout (also known as Cockroach Man), an employee at an amusement park
• Farah Hasno as Maysoun, a young Syrian refugee

Production

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

At the end of the day, … 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?

The film was produced on a budget of $4 million. Producer Khaled Mouzanar took out a mortgage on his house to raise a budget.

Zain Al Rafeea, a Syrian refugee living in the slums of Beirut since 2012, was 12 during production. Al Rafeea s character, Zain, is named for him. Many of the other actors were novices, which Labaki described as necessary because she wanted a real struggle on that big screen . Al Rafeea contributed to shaping the film s dialogue, drawing on his experiences as a refugee living in a slum.

Although Labaki is also an actress, she gave herself only a small role, preferring the realist actors to draw from their own experiences. Shooting lasted six months and resulted in 500 hours of rushes, which took her and her editing team a year and a half to edit down to 2 hours. The first version of the film was 12 hours long, but working in sometimes 24-hour editing shifts with her editors, she was able to cut the film in time. She became very close to her editing team over this period and referred to them, and her crew, as her family.

Reception

Critical response

Capernaum has an approval rating of 90% based on reviews by 177 critics on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website s critics consensus reads, Capernaum hits hard, but rewards viewers with a smart, compassionate, and ultimately stirring picture of lives in the balance. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews .

Many reviews were highly positive. A. O. Scott of The New York Times ranked it as the ninth greatest film of 2018, writing naturalism meets melodrama in this harrowing, hectic tale of a lost boy’s adventures in the slums and shantytowns of Beirut…Labaki refuses to lose sight of the exuberance, grit and humor that people hold onto even in moments of the greatest desperation. Variety s Jay Weissberg judged Capernaum to represent a substantial improvement in Labaki s direction, bringing intelligence and heart to its issue. The Hollywood Reporter critic Leslie Felperin called it an effective melodrama. On Vulture.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.

Some reviews were more mixed. Writing for The A.V. Club, A.A. Dowd called the film a sadness pile that confuses nonstop hardship for drama, begging for our tears at every moment . 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 .

Box office

As of 26 May 2019, the film has grossed $68,583,867 worldwide, against a production budget of $4 million. It has become the highest-grossing Arabic film, and the highest-grossing Middle-Eastern film of all time, surpassing the $21 million box office record of Labaki s earlier film Where Do We Go Now? (2012).

The film had a limited release in the United States and Canada on 14 December 2018. The film went on to gross $1,661,096 in the United States and Canada, as of 30 May 2019. Outside of the United States and Canada, the film has grossed $66.925 million in international markets, as of 26 May 2019.

It released in China on 29 April 2019, and debuted at number two there, behind Avengers: Endgame. Capernaum became a sleeper hit in China, with the help of strong word-of-mouth on Chinese social media (including platforms such as Douban and TikTok). By 5 May 2019, Capernaum had grossed $25.22 million in China, becoming the weekend s second top-grossing film internationally, behind only Avengers: Endgame. By 16 May 2019, the film had crossed ¥300 million RMB ($44 million) in China, in just over two weeks, becoming a surprise blockbuster at the Chinese box office. As of 29 June 2019, the film has grossed $54,315,148 in China.

Accolades

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

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref(s)
Academy Awards	24 February 2019	Best Foreign Language Film	Lebanon	Nominated
Alliance of Women Film Journalists	10 January 2019	Best Non-English Film	Nadine Labaki	Nominated
		Best Woman Director		Nominated
Asia Pacific Screen Awards	29 November 2018	Best Directing		Won
		Best Actor	Zain Al Rafeea	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	10 February 2019	Best Film Not in the English Language	Nadine Labaki, Khaled Mouzanar	Nominated
British Independent Film Awards	2 December 2018	Best International Independent Film	Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwani, Khaled Mouzanar and Michel Merkt	Nominated
Calgary International Film Festival	19–30 September 2018	Audience Favourite, US/International Narrative Feature	Nadine Labaki	Won
		Fan Favourite Award		Won
Cannes Film Festival	8–19 May 2018	Palme d Or	Nadine Labaki	Nominated
		Jury Prize		Won
		Prize of the Ecumenical Jury		Won
César Award	22 February 2019	Best Foreign Film	Capernaum	Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association	8 December 2018	Best Foreign Language Film	Capernaum	Nominated
Critics Choice Movie Awards	13 January 2019	Best Foreign Language Film	Capernaum	Nominated
FICFA	15–23 November 2018	Best Foreign Film	Nadine Labaki	Won
		Audience Award		Won
Film Fest Gent	8–18 October 2018	North Sea Port Audience Award		Won
Globes de Cristal Awards	4 February 2019	Best Foreign Film		Nominated
Golden Globes	6 January 2019	Best Foreign Language Film	Capernaum	Nominated
International Antalya Film Festival	29 September–5 October 2018	Best Actor	Zain Al Rafeea	Won
		Young Jury Award	Nadine Labaki	Won
International Film Festival Rotterdam	23 January – 3 February 2019	IFFR Audience Award		Won
Leeds International Film Festival	1–15 November 2018	Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature		Won
Melbourne International Film Festival	2–19 August 2018	Audience Award		Won
Miami International Film Festival	11–14 October	Gigi Guermont Audience Award		Won
Mill Valley Film Festival	3–13 October 2018	Audience Favorite – World Cinema, Gold Award		Won
Norwegian International Film Festival	August 2018	Audience Award		Won
San Diego Film Critics Society	10 December 2018	Best Foreign Language Film	Capernaum	Runner-up
San Sebastián International Film Festival	21–29 September 2018	Audience Award	Nadine Labaki	2nd Place
São Paulo International Film Festival	18–31 October 2018	Audience Award		Won
Sarajevo Film Festival	10–17 August 2018	Audience Award		Won
St. Louis Film Critics Association	16 December 2018	Best Foreign Language Film	Capernaum	Nominated
St. Louis International Film Festival	1–11 November 2018	Award for Best International Film	Nadine Labaki	Won
Stockholm International Film Festival	7–18 November 2018	Best Screenplay	Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany, Georges Kabbaz and Khaled Mouzanar	Won
		Audience Award	Nadine Labaki	Won
Vilnius International Film Festival	6 April 2019	The Audience Award	Capernaum	Won
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	3 December 2018	Best Foreign Language Film	Capernaum	Nominated
World Soundtrack Awards	October 2019	Public Choice Award	Khaled Mouzanar	Nominated

Year	2018
ReleaseDate	2018-09-20
RuntimeMins	126
RuntimeStr	2h 6min
Plot	While serving a five-year sentence for a violent crime, a 12-year-old boy sues his parents for neglect.
Awards	Top rated movie #93 , Nominated for 1 Oscar, 38 wins & 55 nominations total
Directors	Nadine Labaki
Writers	Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany
Stars	Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole
Produced by	Candice Abela-Mikati,Ray Barakat,Joslyn Barnes,Assaad Debs,Chrystel Elias,Danny Glover,Marianne Katra,Antoine Khalife,Jason Kliot,Chady Eli Mattar,Kateryna Merkt,Michel Merkt,Fouad Mikati,Khaled Mouzanar,Ayla Rizk,Samer Rizk,Susan Rockefeller,Akram Safa,Georges Sarraf,Pierre Sarraf,Wissam Smayra,Sylvio Sharif Tabet,Anne-Dominique Toussaint,Joana Vicente
Music by	Khaled Mouzanar
Cinematography by	Christopher Aoun
Film Editing by	Konstantin Bock,Laure Gardette
Casting By	Jennifer Haddad
Art Direction by	Hussein Baydoun
Costume Design by	Zeina Saab de Melero
Makeup Department	Claudine Choueiry,Nader Sidani,Michelle Sleiman
Production Management	Bob Baddah,Matthieu Bled,Joe El Ghawi,Fouad El Rez,Anne Feret,Belal Hibri,Sebastien Leclercq,Yehia Masri,Jad Nehmeh,Roula Saouma,Khoder Sbeiti,Rosette Stephan,Elie Ziade
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Jennifer Haddad,Andrew Hraiz,Melissa Karam,Toufic Khreich
Art Department	Moussa Baydoun,Dayf El Naem,Ahmad Ghazeleh,Nizar Nassar
Sound Department	Jad Asmar,Karine Bacha,Emmanuel Croset,Sébastien Devaux,Thierry Diab,Patrick Egreteau,Rabih El Ahmar,Alain Français,Jean Gibran,Eric Grattepain,Simon Hanin,Ophelie Le Thomas-Lemeunier,Chadi Roukoz,Hubert Teissedre,Matthieu Tertois,Vince Van Driesten
Visual Effects by	Sebastien Leclercq,Noel Paul
Camera and Electrical Department	Sandra Ayash,Mahmoud Baayoun,Nader Chalhoub,Georges Daoud,Fadi El Samra,Christian Ghammachi,Assad Ghazzawi,Rawad Hmaymess,Hady Hmaynes,Elie Jobrayel,Cyril Lebre,Frida Marzouk,Miled Merhy,Marco Müller,Miled Neyfe,Naser Saad,Samoukil Saleh,Feres Sokhon,Ed Yazbeck,Elie Zein
Casting Department	Ghina El Hachem,Yara Safadi,Cynthia Sawma,Christine Youakim
Costume and Wardrobe Department	Alicia Fahed,Reem Khoury
Editorial Department	Christophe Boutigny,Myriam Geagea,Belal Hibri,Joelle Ishak,Krystel Abou Karam,Audrey Kleinclaus,Jason Kliot,Nicolas Mifsud,Rita Mounzer,Bechara Mouzannar,Pierre Mouzannar,Cécile Munera,Shirine Sinno,Lea Zouein
Location Management	Jinane Chaaya,Joe El Ghawi,Marie-Lynn Nasrallah,Roula Saouma
Music Department	Floriane Bonanni,Marc Ernest,Lena Farah,Alain Francais,Zeid Hamdan,Miles Jay,Mounir Khoury,Françoise Levéchin-Gangloff,Dagim Mekuriya,Romeo Moucharrafieh,Khaled Mouzanar,Marie-Jeanne Serero,Alexandre Tanguy,Jammal Zarzour
Script and Continuity Department	Safé Messaadi,Christiane Mouzannar,Zalfa Rustom Chehab
Transportation Department	Mohammad Amro,Brahim Baddah,Tony Basil,Samer A. Beshara,Johnny Khoueiry,Henri Maalouf,Khaled Nehaile,Miled Saad,Jean Sayah
Additional Crew	Yara Aiami,Emile Albina,Dany Almesbir,Joude Ammar,Nadine Asmar,Fadi Assaly,Najib Azkoul,Alfred Bridi,Lucie Chamberland,Olivier Chiavassa,Michel Tanios Choueiri,Farid Dahdah,Sarah Dutein,Fadoua El Ajjouri,Rana El Halabi,Wissam Fahed,Gaelle Fayad,Fadi Baki Fdz,Myriam Geagea,Charbel Gerges,Nicolas Ghammas,Georges Haddad,Sara Harakat,Mathilde Incerti,Hanaa Issa,Melhem Khalaf,Antoine Khalife,Steve Khattar,Gilles Khoury,Raed Khoury,Yasmina Massabni,Maxime Mathis,Lauren Mekhael,Stephano Mendelek,Fouad Mikati,Carole Moudabber,Tony Moussa,Christiane Mouzannar,Joseph Nabhan,Nizard Najd,Aline Osta,Nicolas Ouvrard,Cynthia Sarkis Perros,Fatma Al Remaihi,Alexis Roposte,Jerome Rudes,Rana Saghieh,Zeina Sfeir,Souraya Taymour,Véronique Toutain,Ryan Werner,Hassan Yahfoufi,Ghada Yammine,Rabih Yammine,Ashton Fontana
Thanks	Farah Abdallah,Jean Al Abrass,Ali Ahmad,Bilal El Hajj Ali,Carlos Aoun,Marcel Aoun,Neyla Aoun,Nebal Araqji,Véronique Aulagnon,Bachir Azouri,Hani Baayoun,Gisele Bassil,Baytamouneh,Carla Beaino,Zora Beer,Heiko Bethke,Miriam Boulos,Soha Bustani,Wolfgang Bäumler,Chahoud,Samira Chalhoub,Majdi Chamaa,Tanya Chapuisat,Claude Chartouni,Karim Ben Cheikh,Mona Choueiry,Marc Codsi,Georges Dabbouk,Fawzi Dagher,Raed Dagher,Wassim Dagher,Abdallah Daher,Rodney Daou,Rita Deaibess,Viviane Debras,Balkis Yassine Debs,Pascale Debs,Joelle Dib,Ali Dirani,Mohamad Al Dousouky,Ghada El Aridi,Soeur Madonna El Aya,Majid El Ayoube,Elie El Deek,Hayat Fakhr El Din,Rodney El Haddad,Fouad El Hadi,Ahmad El Khaled,Ramzi El Rami,Jean Fahed,Nathalie Fallaha,Nadeen Fawaz,Pierre Fikani,Hans Fischer,Adnan Fneich,Bruno Foucher,Tom Fährmann,Alain Ghafary,Abi Ghanem,Marco Ghorayeb,Mireille Girard,Joy Abi Habib,Georges Haddad,Maryam Chamoun Haddad,Khaled Haidar,Hedinn Halldorsson,Lea Hambasourian,Samir Hammoud,Nabil Hanoun,Fadi Hassan,Kozhaya Hatem,Kim Hechmeh,Jerome Hilal,Elena Hosseini,Abbas Ibrahim,Mustafa Jaber,Frederic-Gerard Kaczek,Eliane Kai,Narges Kalhor,Cynthia Kanaan,Hoda Kara,Georges Karam,Wassim Karam,Karsifi,Bilal Kassab,Sami Kawas,Isabelle Keserwany,Melhem Khalaf,Lisa Bou Khaled,Rami Bou Khalil,Anis Khoury,Elie Khoury,Gilles Khoury,Jamileh Khoury,Karim Khoury,Nadia Khoury,Sally Khoury,Antoine Labaki,Antoinette Labaki,Caroline Labaki,Nasri Lahoud,Issam Lamaa,Jean-Christophe Larose,Rana Maalouf,Nayla Majdalani,Mira Abou Malhab,Vincent Maraval,Chawki Matta,Kamale Matta,Mayroun,Joseph Mchantaf,Dirk Meier,Hoda Mhanna,Carole Moudabber,Khaled Moussa,Sherine Moussa,Alia Mouzannar,Bechara Mouzannar,Leila Mouzannar,Pierre Mouzannar,Walid Mouzannar,Joseph Msallem,Angela Murru,Nizard Najd,Claire Nasrallah,Miled Nassar,Adnan Nassreddine,Joseph Nohra,Fadi Obeid,Joseph Obeid,Aline Osta,Imad Othman,Jesus de Melero Pereira,Cynthia Sarkis Perros,Fabian Piehler,Jovelyn Reyes,Ashraf Rifi,Luciano Rispoli,Mohamad Saab,Safa,Carine Safar,Rana Saghieh,Mirella Salameh,Elie Salloum,Krikor Sarafian,Celine Sarafidis,Clara Sarraf,Hani Al Sawah,Christian Schmidt,Soeur Helene Seif,Zeina Sfeir,Ghada Shamseddine,Dana Sleiman,Marco Susic,Roeg Sutherland,Joyce Tabet,Alison Tilbe,Walid,Mekdas Wedaje,Barbara Weiss,Lama Yazbek,Laure Yazbek,Roger Zaccar,Nadim Zoghbi
Genres	Drama
Companies	Mooz Films, Cedrus Invest Bank, Sunnyland Film
Countries	Lebanon, France, Cyprus, Qatar, UK
Languages	Arabic, Amharic
ContentRating	R
ImDbRating	8.4
ImDbRatingVotes	88088
MetacriticRating	75
Keywords	prison,baby,poverty,breast feeding,title directed by female