Capernaum - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Capernaum

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

​

Movie
Capernaum is the 4th film from Lebanese director/actor Nadine Labaki, and takes a rather sharp turn from her previous films. She’s acted all over the place in terms of genre, but has stayed fairly traditional with her direction. Caramel was romantic Drama that was more mainstream, with each of her subsequent directorial works leaning more towards a human dramatic tone as her career moved on. According to the special features and interviews I was able to watch, Capernaum is a highly personal drama that used a whole host of non professional actors (the main kid Zain was quite literally illiterate when she got ahold of him, and most of the dialog is improvised or tweaked in order to get the story that she wanted from him) dealing with the issues of child neglect in the Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon. The film hits hard and fast, sucking the wind out of you as you watch the plot unfold, and by the end of the 2 hour and 3 minute film it’s hard not to hold back tears due to the rawness of the tale.

The film bookends the story with a fable like lawsuit about a young boy named Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) who is suing his parents for neglect. We quickly rewind a short period to see just how Zain got himself into this situation. Zain is one of several children of a poverty stricken family. The children have to work selling vegetable juice on the side of the road for pennies, while taking Tramadol pills and making a sort of opiate “juice” out of them to sell on the black market to other people who want just a short does of happiness, even if that happiness comes at $15 a shot. When his sister Sahar (Haita ‘Cedra’ Izzam) starts to menstruate, Zain realizes that she’ll be sold off to their landlord Azzam as a child bride if he doesn’t do something. Grabbing their belongings and stealing some cash, Zain comes back for his sister only to come too late. His sister is gone and his parents have pawned her off to the lecherous Assad for a few months rent.

Grabbing his belongings and running away forever, Zain (who is at most 12-13 years old, which is unknown as he doesn’t have papers), tries to make it on the streets of Beirut with little luck. He stumbles from place to place begging a few meals here and there, but it isn’t until he’s taken in by an Ethiopian woman and her year old child Yonas (Boluwatife Treasure Bankole) that things start looking up for the starving boy. Able to work odd jobs while Yonas’s mother is out working, Zain is able to stack up some money as a reserve and it looks like things are finally getting better for the young boy. That is until Yonas’s mother ends up in jail by accident and the eviction notice is served on their humble abode. Suddenly what was once a future crumbles into nothingness as Zain is locked out of their apartment (or what looks to be a garage) and the money that he had saved is thrown away with the rest of his gear. Back on the street once more, Zain is now saddled with a 1 year old child in the form of Yonas, and the two are forced to stumble around from place to place until Zain gets the opportunity to leave Beirut through an unscrupulous “coyote” who needs Zain’s papers. Leaving Yonas with this man (which turns out to be a huge mistake), the 12 year old goes home and confronts his parents, only to find out that he HAS no ID papers, and ends up committing a crime that sends him to the juvenile prison where he gets a chance to make the film’s lawsuit against his parents for neglect.

Nadine Labaki put her heart and soul into Capernaum (which originally was a city that God turned his back on biblically, but has since morphed into a middle eastern word meaning “chaos” in modern times), and chose to use non professional actors in her main roles. The film itself is not just only a fable like film set in Beirut, it is also a cry for attention and help in a world where children live in conditions that we in the western world can only have nightmares about. All jokes and hyperbole aside, in our portion of the world we live in complete denial about the living conditions in countries like Lebanon, Syria, and the rest of the Middle East and Africa. Our poverty ridden centers of the U.S. alone would be considered heaven for certain areas across the globe, and children have way less rights than even our early 19th century labor laws took care of over here. This film is meant to peel back some of the layers of denial and ignorance, and show just what these people live with over there and is technically a cry for action by the director.

Nadine does many things right with Capernaum, especially with her choice of actors. According to interviews Zain was quite literally an illiterate child, and nearly incapable of memorizing lines. She and her production staff had to coach his as best they could and shoot scenes over and over again until they got an improvised line out of the child that matched up with what they were trying to say. It also adds a layer of rawness and reality that makes watching Zain all the more painful. The rest of the cast are just as obvious in their “rawness”, giving a gut wrenching court room performance to compliment Zain’s almost dull stare that he gives throughout the rest of the film in regards to being beaten down, trodden upon, and generally spit on by the rest of society.

One of the things that the film suffers from though is TOO many travesties in one film. Nadine tries to bring notice to child neglect, illegal immigration/emigration, pedophilia, child marriage, poverty and several more things that kind of bloat the movie a bit. Had she trimmed down a few of the sub plots it would have gotten the film down about 15 minutes in length and tightened things up just a tad. Otherwise Capernaum is a powerful film that highlights the sheer suffering that children across the globe have to deal with, and acts as a powerful reminder that no matter how far we have come, there is still much to be improved upon.




Rating:

Rated R for Language and Brief Drug Material




Video:

Shot using Arri Alexa cameras (the staple for modern day shoots) and transferred to a 2K digital intermediate, Capernaum looks really good considering the vastly different locals and various shooting conditions used throughout the film. Daylight sequences vary the least, with an almost over brightened scheme that deals with stone grays and earth tones. The interior and night shots vary more, with some shots showing no digital noise, while others (like in Yonas’s garage home) show significant spikes. Yellow color tones come and go depending on location, and the blacks can crush a bit and show more noise in the background. However, fine details can be razor sharp, with near demo levels during those outdoor daylight shots, and a but a bit hazier in some of the dimly lit street conditions. Banding is near non existent, and while the film may not be stylized to look “pretty”, the film is very authentic to the source material and well nuanced.






Audio:

The Arabic 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is quite pleasing as well, and gives us a fairly spacious sound stage to work with. The claustrophobic interior shots are more dialog focused, with clean vocals and a low reverb in the background. The outside world of Beirut is really where the track shines, though, with the hustle and din of the busy city echoing all around the poor boy. As he gets deeper and deeper into despair the film’s audio mix seems to get more intense and more oppressive, lending to the sensation of terror that the boy lives with. The LFE is tight and powerful, accentuating the Middle Eastern style score, and add some weight to things like Zain kicking in a door, or the smash of a solid steel prison gate. It’s a good track, and while not a showy track, it does everything right.




Extras:

• Q&A with Director Nadine Labaki and Zain Al Rafeea
• The Making of Capernaum
• Filmmaker's Commentary
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score:
​

Capernaum is raw, visceral, hard to watch at times, and yet completely sweet and heart warming at the same time. The use of non professional actors can be a rocky choice for many films, but considering how raw the film is meant to be, the use in this situation actually enhanced the film’s punching power in my personal opinion. I was mesmerized from beginning to end, and even though it could have used some trimming, Nadine Labaki’s 4th film is quite the power house, and well worth watching for those who want a hard hitting, non Hollywood, drama. The audio and video are excellent and the disc’s special features, while sparse, are incredibly rich and full of information that acts as a great supplement to the film itself. Highly recommended.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad, Fadi Yousef, Haita 'Cedra' Izzam
Directed by: Nadine Labaki
Written by: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: Arabic: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, French
Studio: Sony
Rated: R
Runtime: 123 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: March 26th, 2019

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Never saw any of her films. I will have to check her work.

Where Do We Go Now? (2011), Caramel (2007) and Capernaum (2018)

 

[Asere]

I have never heard of these films either but will check them out too. Thanks for the review.