Description
Capernaum is an award-winning film which explores the life of Zain, a streetwise, good-natured boy of about twelve years of age, who deftly negotiates the crowded streets and desperate poverty of modern Lebanon. Living in the unforgiving slums of Beirut with his uneducated parents and a wild pack of younger brothers and sisters, Zain is forced to become the family’s primary breadwinner and problem solver. When he fails to prevent his parents from marrying off his beloved, younger sister, Sahar, to a man nearly three times her age, he runs away from his negligent parents and finds himself navigating a world where cruelty and poverty threaten to overwhelm kindness and goodness. Directed by Nadine Labacki, the film has received critical acclaim, earning a New York Times’ Critic Pick designation, and the Prix de La Citoyennete at the Cannes Film Festival, a jury prize for outstanding social responsibility.