CAPERNAUM

Capernaum tells the story of Zain, a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the "crime" for neglect. The film follows Zain as he journeys from gutsy, streetwise child to hardened 12-year-old "adult" fleeing his negligent parents, surviving through his wits on the streets, taking care of Ethiopian refugee Rahil and her baby son Yonas, being jailed for a violent crime, and finally, seeking justice in a courtroom.

Nadine Labaki spent the first seventeen years of her life, living in a war torn environment, by 1991 the civil war in Lebanon had ended. She began her career with Studio El Fan, a Lebanese talent show, in 1990. Labaki won a prize for directing various music video productions.

Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki brings an undeniable emotional pull to this harrowing portrait of a poverty-stricken child's fight to survive in the slums of Beirut.

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone