Capernaum

کفرناحوم (2018)

Timing: 2:6 (126 min)

8.138/10
1949

8.16/10
179345

8.4/10
123000

All about film

Video 18

Photo 57

Actors and characters

Release date

2018-09-20

Country

Cyprus, France, Lebanon, Qatar, United Kingdom, United States

Production

Wild Bunch, Boo Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Mooz Films, Cedrus Invest Bank, Clandestino Filmes, DFI, KNM Films, Les Films des Tournelles, Louverture Films, Open City Films, Sunnyland Film, The Bridge Production, KNM, Synchronicity Films

Genre

Drama

Budget

$4 000 000

Revenue

$64 398 132

Website

http://www.capharnaumfilm.com/

Director

Nadine Labaki

Actors

Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shifera, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad, Fadi Kamel Yousef, Cedra Izzam, Alaa Chouchnieh, Elias Khoury, Nadine Labaki, Nour el Husseini
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily

Producer

Michel Merkt, Khaled Mouzanar, Khaled Mouzanar, Danny Glover, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente, Anne-Dominique Toussaint, Fouad Mikati, Joslyn Barnes, Susan Rockefeller

Operator

Christopher Aoun

Composer

Khaled Mouzanar

Artist

Audition

Editing

Laure Gardette, Konstantin Bock
All team (42)

• The film was made with the participation of non-professional actors. All the actors were found through street casting. Children and adults were found on the street and asked to answer a few questions on camera. For example, children were asked: “Are you happy to be alive?”. Most children answered this question similarly: “No, I would like to die”, “I don’t know why I live,” and so on. None of the children who auditioned knew how old they were, when or where they were born, and they had never celebrated their birthday.
• The main character, Zayn, was also found during street casting. His real name is Zayn, and he was, like his character, presumably 12 years old during filming. Due to the military conflict, Zayn and his family moved from Syria to neighboring Lebanon. He is a Syrian refugee. For eight years, he lived in very difficult conditions in one of the areas that the viewer sees in the film, in circumstances that were worse than what the viewer sees in the film, and, like his character, he worked illegally from a young age. Zayn never went to school. At the time of filming, he couldn't even write his own name.
• Since the film features non-professional actors, director Nadine Labaki asked the characters during filming to react spontaneously to the scripted scenes, using their own words and gestures. When their acting deviated from the script, Labaki adapted the story to fit the characters.
• Participation in the film helped change the lives of everyone involved in the production – the non-professional actors whose fate and daily lives were not far removed from what was shown in the film. Currently, the film's main character, Zein, lives in Norway with his family in a house by the sea and attends school.
• The film's premiere in Cannes on May 17, 2018, concluded with a 15-minute standing ovation.
• The film was made with the participation of non-professional actors. All the actors were found through street casting. Children and adults were found on the street and asked to answer a few questions on camera. For example, children were asked: “Are you happy to be alive?” Most children answered this question in a similar way: “No, I wish I were dead,” “I don’t know why I live,” and so on. None of the children auditioning knew how old they were, when or where they were born, and they had never celebrated their birthday.
• The main character, Zayn, was also found through street casting. His real name is Zayn, and like his character, he was presumably 12 years old during filming. Due to the military conflict, Zayn and his family moved from Syria to neighboring Lebanon. He is a Syrian refugee. For eight years, he lived in very difficult conditions in one of the areas that the viewer sees in the film, in circumstances that are worse than what the viewer sees in the film, and, like his character, he worked illegally from a young age. Zayn never went to school. At the time of filming, he couldn't even write his name.