Capernaum(2018)
dir. Nadine Labaki
A kid sues his parents for giving him this life.
Where to watch: Rent on Apple TVLetterboxd ↗
A Lebanese boy living on the street sues his parents for having him, and the film unwinds backward through the neglect and poverty that brought him there.
Why it’s here
Cast almost entirely with non-professional actors living some version of the story on screen — a 12-year-old's lawsuit against his own parents is the frame, but the real indictment is everything that made the lawsuit make sense to him.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Lebanon
Read Alongside
Books that share a topic, theme, or setting with this film.
Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War
Robert Fisk
What happens when the world uses Lebanon.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
A Court of Thorns and Roses
Sarah J. Maas
Survival instincts don't stop at the Wall.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Aké: The Years of Childhood
Wole Soyinka
A colonial childhood, one question at a time.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
All Different Now: Juneteenth, the First Day of Freedom
Punk and Pedagogy
The morning everything changed.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Amal Unbound
Aisha Saeed
The debt wasn't hers. The cage is.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Katherine Boo
A Mumbai slum in the shadow of luxury hotels. Three years inside.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Bodega Dreams
Ernesto Quiñonez
East Harlem, a visionary drug dealer, and the dream of ownership.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST
Born to Buy
Juliet Schor
The marketing industry studied your childhood. To sell to it.
✦ READ – REFLECT → RESIST