Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki was recently interviewed by the British newspaper, The Guardian. She talked about many topics including the child poverty that inspired her latest film and some facts behind the film’s production.
Nadine Labaki explained that the idea of famous Capernaum film began with “feeling responsible, with wanting to become the voice of homeless kids.”
Labaki told The Guardian that she started thinking about Capernaum when she met a homeless kid at 1:00 am in the morning sitting on a cement block in the middle of the road, sleepless.
Afterwards, she started going out with her co-writers to the most difficult neighborhoods where she spoke to children asking them if they were happy to be alive and the most answer was no.
“One day, it hit me. This is going to be the story of a child who says: no more,” she said.
As for the production of Capernaum, Nadine said that her husband, the musician and composer Khaled Mouzanar produced it and wrote the score.
She also pointed out that he mortgaged their house without even telling her. “We shot for six months. It’s not a case of arriving noisily, closing off streets with big vans and all that. You must become invisible”.
Capernaum tells the story of a 12-year-old boy, “Zain”, who lives in a Beirut slum and whose parents are incapable of taking care of him. He runs away from home and lives for a while with an illegal immigrant from Ethiopia, Rahil.
Nadine Labaki is currently making history with her film “Capernaum” after being the first Lebanese movie to ever be nominated for the Golden Globe’s Foreign Language category, and recently to the Oscars.
