Upcoming Lebanese film Capernaum released a heartbreaking new trailer today. Nadine Labaki’s film will follow an impoverished young boy as he sues his parents for having him. Labaki was moved to make the film after seeing children, likely refugees forced to work dead-end jobs and beg in the streets.
Labaki talked about this when debuting the trailer exclusively on Variety. “We ignore them. We act like they’re nonexistent when they’re here because of our wars and our conflicts and the stupid decisions of failing governments. I needed to understand what happens when one of these boys I saw on the streets disappears around the corner.”
She then began investigating the plight of these families and children. Labaki found that, heartbreakingly, many children would have rather not been born than live in these conditions. “They didn’t know why they were born if they were only here to be raped, beaten, abused, tortured. Nobody said a nice word to them. These kids are angry to the point of being numb.” Labaki said.
Capernaum has received rave reviews in its festival run, even winning the Jury Prize at Cannes this year. The heartbreaking film is hopeful to win the Foreign Language Oscar but Labaki has higher hopes. “I might be too ambitious or too naive to that think that we can change everything. But I want this film to open a debate about these problems and make people more aware of it. Maybe that will be the beginning of something.”
Capernaum is set to release in the US on December 14th. See the new trailer below:
