Capernaum: disposable legion of heroes

Inhabitants of a capitalist universe, it is natural that, when we go to the movies, we marvel at the wonders that reveal where the capital is. Capernaum subverts this logic by showing or practically spilling on the screen where capital is not.

People who stay on the fringes of income distribution are commonly called “economically vulnerable”. The film does not stop at political or moral issues, but makes clear that if there is vulnerability in the world, none is greater than that experienced by children.

Zain is a boy of about 12 years old (not even the parents know when he was born) getting handcuffed in a court in Beirut. We imagine that it is "naturally" some kind of delinquency that "this kind of people" commits. However, through the narratives, we find that it does not. He has been serving time already for a few years for stabbing a man. What is involved here is a lawsuit, proposed by the boy, against his parents for having committed the "crime" of placing him in the world.

The film is a succession of flashbacks that (do not) explain Zain's story but draw a profile of the children's universe in a place where they come to the world trough a religious discourse that masks an odd evil of parents. Ignorant, addicted, and slothful, they do not care a minute worrying about their children's fate. They do not know when they were born, where they are, they do not send them to school, and if an opportunity for profit arises, they do not mind "raffling off" a younger daughter into the ubiquitous lust of human predators.

Fleeing from home, Zain receives, perhaps for the first time in his life, a bit of affection and attention from an illegal Ethiopian immigrant Rahil and goes on to take care of her son, the toddler Yonas, who, due to her mother's arrest, becomes a mission of life for the boy.

Zain becomes a hero: he becomes gigantic, resilient, he invents unbelievable strategies. However, villains are many, some because they hunt, others because they do not care, others because they deny reality. Victory is impossible, just as this world legion of heroes is disposable.

#review #labaki