Harlan Jacobson's Talk Cinema: Capernaum

Harlan Jacobson’s Talk Cinema

Capernaum (Capharnaüm)
Directed by Nadine Labaki

Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film – Golden Globes 2019

Wednesday, January 9, 7 pm

Click to purchase tickets!

$18 / $16 Speed members / Free for Cinephile members

“A deeply assured piece of direction.” —Emily Yoshida, New York Magazine

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum (“Chaos”) tells the story of Zain, a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the “crime” of giving him life. Zain is a gutsy streetwise child who flees his negligent parents, survives through his wits on the streets, takes care of Ethiopian refugee and her baby son, and and seeks justice in a courtroom.

Capernaum was made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely parallel their own. While steeped in the quiet routines of ordinary people, it is a film with an expansive palette: without warning it can ignite with emotional intensity, surprise with unexpected tenderness, and inspire with flashes of poetic imagery. Although it is set in the depths of a society’s systematic inhumanity, Capernaum is ultimately a hopeful film that deeply stirs the heart. 2018, Lebanon, DCP, in Arabic and Amharic with English subtitles, 123 minutes.  Rated R.

Talk Cinema is a national series, programmed by the venerable film critics and film curators Harlan and Susan Jacobson, featuring a sneak preview screening of an art house film prior to its release followed by discussion.

This past year’s selections have included The Florida Project, Lady Bird, I, Tonya, and The Other Side of Hope.