Nadine Labaki draws persuasive performances from children and non-professional actors, finding humour as well as hardship. We recommend Capernaum for that attention to people, despite her urge to explain what her actors have already made clear.
Fi1m perspective
In Capernaum (2018), Zain Al Rafeea's Zain takes responsibility for a baby, and Labaki gives their company time to become funny as well as worrying. Neither child exists simply to make us feel sorry for him. We were moved by Zain's care because the work of looking after someone so small falls to a boy who needs looking after himself. Labaki allows his anger and resourcefulness to remain visible alongside his tenderness. These are the scenes that make us recommend a film whose courtroom framing we find much less convincing.
Caramel (2007), her feature debut, established her interest in non-professional performers and women's lives in Beirut. She wrote, directed and acted in it, as she did in Where Do We Go Now? (2011), which follows women trying to prevent violence in a Lebanese village. Her recurring collaborators include producer, composer and co-writer Khaled Mouzanar. By her third feature, Capernaum, children carry the story and the adults have much to answer for. Her trust in her performers is especially valuable here, since Al Rafeea can make Zain angry and resourceful without turning him into an example of cheerful resilience.
The difficulty comes when Labaki tries to make those lives add up to a clear verdict. Capernaum introduces Zain through his attempt to sue his parents, then looks back at his life on Beirut's streets. The framing keeps asking who is to blame when the street scenes have already shown how much is beyond any one household's control. We find the courtroom passages heavy-handed because they explain what the children have made clear without speeches. The danger of living without documents deserves more than a judgement on two parents.
The humour matters just as much as the anger. In the scenes between Al Rafeea and Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, who plays the baby Yonas, Labaki allows companionship to take precedence over explaining their predicament. The moments of adult kindness matter too: she avoids making everyone older than Zain an enemy. We would like her to give those encounters more time before returning to the court case. Start with Capernaum, and allow for some heavy-handed explanation along the way.
Biography
Nadine Labaki is a Lebanese actress, director and writer. She was born on 18 February 1974 in Baabdat, Lebanon, and studied audiovisual arts at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. She began her career directing music videos before moving into feature films.
Labaki made her directorial debut with Caramel (2007), which she also wrote and in which she played Layale. She followed this with Where Do We Go Now? (2011), again directing, writing and starring as Amale. In Capernaum (2018) she served as director and writer while playing the role of Nadine.
She is the first female Arab director nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, for Capernaum. Labaki has acted in other films including The Sand Castle (2024) as Yasmine. She has been married to composer Khaled Mouzanar since 2007.
