Capernaum

Capernaum - Is there hope in a world of chaos?

 Buildings piled over each other in a chaotic pattern. A disordered world. A world where humanity has been forsaken in favor of greed. A world of chaos and disorder - that's what the titular world "capharnaum" means. This is what we see in this film. A world where children are exploited by those who should be protecting them. With an attentive and watchful eye, Nadine Labaki guides us through this heartbreaking world, never flinching at showing us its broken reality. Through a harrowing vision, she makes us question: How can a child grow in a world like this? A  world that doesn't show them love. A world that abuses them. A world that doesn't recognize their existence. A world dominated by an archaic definition of nation. A world of chaos. How can they grow up and become good human beings if everything that they face constant abuse? How can they grow up if all they know is pain and chaos? How can they grow up? Is there hope?

 As Capernaum opens, we see a boy, about 13 years old, standing alone in a dimly lit office. This boy is called Zain - played by Zain Al Rafeea, a Syrian refugee, who does one of the best performances from a child actor I have seen - and officially he doesn't exist. He is one of the thousands of children that live around the world that have never been registered and therefore don't exist to the state, making them easy targets for predatory behavior from adult abusers. However, this child that we are seeing isn't any child - this is a child that is taking action. He isn't a passive victim anymore. He is suing his parents for, as he says, bringing him to this world. At the same time that we see this, Labaki also shows us the story of abuse that this boy faced, interlocking his action against his parents with episodes from his past, making this a much more powerful story and making us understand Zain's world better. 

 Through this story, Labaki gives a voice to all the voiceless children around the world. In a way, she acts as the watchful eye that is vigilant over these children. It's no accident that all throughout the film we see shots seen from a "god's eye perspective". By doing this, she makes Zain's story much more universal. Because we are not only looking at this particular story. We are looking at a whole world and a whole system that are broken. We not only see Zain's abuse, but all the children with whom he interacts: his siblings, the baby of an Ethiopian immigrant, a Syrian refugee girl. We see children who aren't able to be children because of their abuse and oppression. They are forced to work or get married, when they should be getting an education and playing with their friends. They live in a world that doesn't let them develop properly, making this abuse cyclical. Because the only future given to these children is becoming trapped in this misery.

 To add to that, technically these children don't exist. At every chance she gets, Labaki shows us the enormous flaw in the absurdity of having to have a paper to prove that one exists. It's with a blunt force that we come to realize that. And because they don't exist in this system, they also don't have rights that should be inherent to everyone. We are told the story of Rahil, an Ethiopian immigrant woman who befriends Zain after he leaves his parents' house. She is able to get by in Lebanon by buying fake visas from a counterfeiter, all while hiding the existence of her daughter. The problem is that her visa's expiration date is coming closer and she doesn't have the money to buy a new one. One day, she is found out by authorities and is jailed, leaving Zain alone with her daughter. If we look into this, we see that for this situation to happen there needs to be some kind of absurdity working in the system that allowed this to happen. Not only does this system make people like Rahim, who are only trying to find a better life for themselves and their children, prone to subject themselves to criminals, contributing to the maintenance of crime, which, by extension, means that the system is contributing to the maintenance of crime, but it treats them as criminals for her status as an illegal in this system. This reveals the contradictory nature of such a system that jeopardizes itself and is dysfunctional in this modern world, becoming circularly self-destructive and inefficient.

 Another thing that Labaki shows us is how disillusioned these children are. She has said in an interview that when she was researching for this film, she interviewed various children like Zain, and she would ask them, "Are you happy?", and almost all of them would answer, "No, I'm not happy and I wish I was dead". It's heartbreaking to think that any child would think this way, but that's what is shown in this film. In a world filled with such oppression, how can they be happy? Their childhood has been twisted and thwarted by the world they live in. In certain scenes, we see Zain trying to connect with a certain infantile side that he might have - in an amusement park or when he watches cartoons on a neighbor's TV set, or even in the strangely surreal character of "Cockroach Man". In these scenes he presents us this hint of childhood, however, there is an impossibility for that connection to happen. He isn't able to appreciate the amusement park in a happy way like a child of his age would, and he gives obscene dialogue to the characters of the cartoon that he watches. He is merely destined to watch those things with faint curiosity, the way he looks at "Cockroach Man". His childhood is distorted. This is why he reaches a tilting point. When he learns that his beloved younger sister, who had been sold to an older man, has died in her first pregnancy, he snaps. He grabs a knife and goes to kill the man. This is when he is imprisoned, finally entering the circular process of the criminal system.

 However, after all the bleak pessimism that we see, Labaki twists it and gives us hope. One day, Zain calls a TV show and declares to the world that he wishes to sue his parents. This is when the two timelines converge, and it's probably the most interesting aspect of this brilliant film. Capernaum is an accusation of the absurdity of the chaotic bureaucratic system built by adults that preys on these helpless children. Yet, Labaki presents hope to this in the form of adults willing to do good. She materializes this most specifically in a character that she plays herself - the lawyer who represents Zain in court. She is not only advocating for the future of these children but appealing for adults to take action in support of them. 

 It is important to highlight that, even though Zain's revolt is directly against his parents, it's indirectly against the entire system that made them act the way they did. And it's important to underline the fact that Labaki also makes us empathize with the parents. Because they are as much victims of this system as Zain. They have been kept in poverty and they were as abused as Zain. In a heart-wrenchingly powerful scene, his mother pleads for him to forgive her for her mistakes. It's clear that if she could she would have given him a true childhood and education, but she simply wasn't given that choice. And this is what shows us how deep the rot of this system goes. It's something that has drowned generations over generations in a muck of poverty. This is why the empathy that Nadine Labaki shows towards Zain's parents is so important.

 But Zain must not falter, and he continues on and wins. After all the negativity of the film, things seemingly start to lighten up. Suddenly we see everything fall into place. The criminals that we have seen throughout this film get what they deserve and are sent to jail. Rahil is reunited with her daughter. And Zain finally gets his papers and becomes "a real person". In an extremely powerful scene, we see him taking a photo for his passport. The photographer gives him orders. Zain has a frown in his face, but after he is ordered to smile twice, he finally smiles the most beautiful smile in the world. The photo is taken and the image freezes. This is the image that stays with us. After all the shit and misery that we have witnessed this boy go through, we are left with this beautiful image. The image of his smile. A ray of hope. A chance for a better future? Does this mean anything? Maybe not. But at least now there is hope.