*2019 Academy Award Nominee - Best Foreign Language Film*
*Winner - Grand Jury Prize - Cannes Film Festival 2018*
CLICK HERE for an Exclusive Music Box Interview with Writer/Director NADINE LABAKI
Nadine Labaki’s CAPERNAUM (“Chaos”) tells the story of Zain (Zain al Raffea), a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the “crime” of giving him life. Zain, a gutsy streetwise child fleeing his negligent parents, survives through his wits on the streets, takes care of Ethiopian refugee Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw) and her baby son, Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole), being jailed for a crime, and finally, seeks justice in a courtroom.
CAPERNAUM was made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely parallel their own. Following her script, Labaki placed her performers in scenes and asked them to react spontaneously with their own words and gestures. When the non-actors’s instincts diverged from the written script, Labaki adapted the screenplay to follow them.
While steeped in the quiet routines of ordinary people, CAPERNAUM is a film with an expansive palette: without warning it can ignite with emotional intensity, surprise with unexpected tenderness, and inspire with flashes of poetic imagery.
Although it is set in the depths of a society’s systematic inhumanity, CAPERNAUM is ultimately a hopeful film that stirs the heart as deeply as it cries out for action.
“Tackles its subject with intelligence and heart.” -- Variety
“A deeply assured piece of direction” -- Vulture
In Arabic with English subtitles
Music Box Theatre screens films of all genres and from every era of cinema, both new releases and repertory. These films may sometimes contain upsetting, outdated, or offensive material. While we aim to introduce many of our screenings, we do not always provide warnings about potentially triggering content within the films we screen. We encourage our patrons to research the film before they attend using trailers, reviews, or content information found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com.
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