Capernaum; A Robbery of Innocence

Capernaum (May 17th, 2018), directed by Nadine Labaki tells a tragic story of how the protagonist, Zain manages to face trials that no child should endure. The film also sheds light on certain injustices that are not commonly vocalized in areas of extreme poverty within the Arab
world.
Zain is only 12 years old but lives the life of a fully fledged adult, working as a delivery boy for a man named Assad. We first get a glimpse of his unsettling maturity when he notices that his sister Sahar has gotten her period. Zain knows that it is not uncommon for girls to be sent off to
get married quite early, especially in a poor household. He immediately teaches Sahar how to conceal her period which isn’t something that a 12 year old boy should really know how to do.
Though tragic, Zain’s maturity and understanding of his environment is mostly a reflection of his keen observations to his surroundings. It isn’t uncommon for families living in poverty to have children working at a young age, as well as girls to be sent off to get married despite the
unnerving age of their husbands. It is seen as a “necessary” in order for those families to be able to survive. This theme of “do or die” is prevalent throughout the entirety of the film. When Zain’s sister inevitably gets sent off to get married, he decides to run away from home to
eventually seek refuge with an immigrant named Rahil who illegally works at a fair. In order to stay with Rahil, Zain agrees to babysit her infant son Yonas when she is away at work, which further demonstrates his immense maturaty. Rahil’s forged documents are set to expire, and she owes money to a man named Aspro, who can renew her documents. This sheds light on how troubling the immigration system can be in some Arab countries as it is not uncommon for people to be working illegally with forged documents due to the systems in place being quite
inefficient. Rahil isn’t able to come up with the money and is arrested, leaving Zain and Yonas behind. Zain then crosses paths with Aspro who wants Yonas in exchange for Zain to be sent to Sweden. Zain agrees and is told that he must have some form of identification to be able to make
it to Sweden.
Once Zain returns to his family back home to obtain his identification, he is slammed with the traumatizing news that Sahar has died from her pregnancy. In a fit of rage, Zain stabs Assad which is what ultimately puts him in prison and brings the narrative to the present tense where
Zain is attempting to sue his parents for “birthing him into existence”. This final sequence of events grounds the dark reality that after all, Zain is just a child and no child should ever have to go through anything that Zain had to.
In sum, Capernaum illustrates the unfortunate cycle that Arab families living in extreme poverty may need to endure through the eyes of Zain. The notion of “do or die” is communicated to various extremes including child labor, underaged marriages, selling drugs, kidnapping children,
and even murder. These troubling issues are vocalized powerfully by having the audience follow these injustices through the eyes of a 12 year old child which speaks to even greater volumes.