Capernaum (2018)
Directed by Nadine Labaki
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.
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4 films that influenced Capernaum
What critics say influenced Capernaum
A kind of a cross between Italian neo-realism tales like Bicycle Thieves , the grimy and sometimes grim tales of US auteur Larry Clark ( Kids , Bully ) and brutal Brazilian favela drama City of God , Capernaum features some stunning performances from its cast of predominantly young novice actors.
The end result has the stark grittiness of Matteo Garrone's Neapolitan crime story Gomorrah (2008), captures the dangers of a teeming slum with the veracity of Fernando Mereilles and Kátia Lund's City of God (2002), and chronicles the end of innocence as harrowingly as Cary Joji Fukunaga's Sin Nombre (2009) and Beasts of No Nation (2015)—all of which used nonactors to great effect.
Capernaum has similar qualities to Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s City of God , with the mainstream appeal of Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire , and resembles Rohinton Mistry’s novel A Fine Balance in how it explores the lives of those who fall through the cracks in the system.
The end result has the stark grittiness of Matteo Garrone's Neapolitan crime story Gomorrah (2008), captures the dangers of a teeming slum with the veracity of Fernando Mereilles and Kátia Lund's City of God (2002), and chronicles the end of innocence as harrowingly as Cary Joji Fukunaga's Sin Nombre (2009) and Beasts of No Nation (2015)—all of which used nonactors to great effect.
As in 2017's The Florida Project, Capernaum's harsher realities are leavened throughout by humor and a singular energy — albeit with less sentimentality and fewer fantastical touches.
Compared to Zain, the kids in "The Florida Project" live in Disney World.
Much like last year’s The Florida Project , children pay a high price when their impoverished circumstances are the result of selfish adults who lead careless lives.
It’s a tragic home-life that makes living on the streets more of a viable option, despite their similarly poverty-stricken conditions, at least the kids in The Florida Project got to have some fun amongst the despair.
There’s something gut-wrenchingly effective about a child-in-peril movie, whether it’s played for laughs – think Home Alone – or with deadly seriousness, as in Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners .