Review: Capernaum

The only thing I knew about this film going into this was that it did rather well at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Winning three awards including the Jury Prize and nominated for the Palms d'Or had me feeling positive. Yet I still had no idea what the story was or if it sounded like it would be something that would appeal to me.

It starts off fairly well. It introduced me to the setting and characters well. I noticed surprising moments of charm in what was a story surrounded by bleakness.
It wasn't until almost halfway through that I realised that something special has been made as there were moments on screen that I heavily engaged and could feel me heavily rooting for our protagonists.
After that, the story got strong in its content and all the characters both leading and supporting were becoming fully-fledged. By the end, I was just so impressed with the overall product of this powerfully-told story.

One of the films many strengths comes from the performance by not just the leads, but pretty much everyone.
The star of the show is child actor Zain Al Rafeea. The strength, confidence and cockiness he puts into his character gave us a engaging protagonist and the performance suggesting he had been acting for years. But no this is first ever role.
His chemistry with baby actor Boluwatife Treasure Bakole throughout the second act and most of the third was an absolute joy. Some of the decisions made my Bankole were so sweet and hilarious that I would love to know how they directed that as Bankole looked to be no more than a toddler.
Yordanos Shifarew did a good job as the main support for these two youngsters and played the natural mother fatigue really well.
Kawsar Al Haddad and Fadi Yousef also played off as these despicable characters really well. I also have to mention Joseph Jimbazian, who came off really well as the minor comedic relief.

Other notable strengths were directing, production design and writing. The dialogue had a nice balance of heart-warming emotion, street-smart insults and untrustworthiness. The script became a huge contribution bin elevating these characters.
As for the production design, from early on, you could already feel the dirt of the slums that these characters are having to live with. Instant transportation is always a big plus for any film.

I wasn't too hot on the decision of mainly going for the 'shaky-cam' approach. But as the translation of the original title is 'Chaos', I didn't become a major drawback. Plus, I could still work out what was going on and the moments when the camera was at its shakiest incorporated the situation well when it got to its most chaotic.
Also, if I was being picky, there were moments that I think cut have been cut down. But like I said, this is just me clutching at straws.

I was pretty blown away by this. It's always a great feeling seeing a film and not expecting it to be this good after going in with no expectations at all.
This is a wonderful human story full of agony, triumph, laughter, sadness and struggle. Zain Al Rafeea is a revelation and gives a powerhouse performance. His chemistry with baby actor Bankole is some of the best I've seen in a while.
All of that has to be commended by director Nadine Labaki and her team for giving them the direction is giving us such engaging characters.
This a wonderfully crafted film with the most touching story and I hope this becomes an Oscar contender outside of the Foreign Language category.

Rating: 8/10