The movie about growing up in the slums of Beirut haunts me, days after I watched it.
More specifically, the work of child actor Zain Al Rafeea haunts me. His ability to connect the audience to his despair -- and to the incredible resilience he shows in the depths of that despair -- is the stuff of which legendary careers are made.
And this was Al Rafeea's first and only acting role.
For me to even attempt commentary on Capernaum feels hollow and incomplete. The inevitable description of the movie as being about "the struggle to survive while living in the extreme poverty of a desperate city" just seems trite. It just doesn't do Al Rafeea's powerhouse of a performance justice.
Director Nadine Labaki's fictional account feels like a real-life documentary. It's raw. It's spellbinding. It's moving. It's haunting.
Most of all it's a movie everyone in the USA should see.
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