Nadine Labiki has created a real-life Dickensian drama with performances of breathtaking naturalism.

| Oct 26, 2021

It's a very harrowing portrait... Zain Al Rafeea is amazing.

| Sep 12, 2019

It's essential viewing for the ways in which it illuminates brutally hard lives many of us could otherwise not imagine, and for the craft of its nonprofessional performers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 2, 2019

Jail and courtroom scenes, at the beginning and end, may be a tad implausible, not to mention scrappy. But the middle section, mostly shot on handheld cameras on the streets of Beirut, is breathtaking, topical, hilarious, tender and brutal.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 28, 2019

Capernaum's odyssey, in which Zain battles the hazards of shantytowns, souks, prisons and betrayals with wily, angry energy, paints him as a resourceful figure fighting impossible odds rather than the passive child victim of charity adverts.

| Feb 27, 2019

Rafeea, a non-professional actor and Syrian refugee, is the film's secret weapon. At times, the tragedy unfolding on screen feels borderline unwatchable, but his strange, fascinating, eerily adult face offers a litany of minute expressions.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 24, 2019

A clunky, hanky-dampening mechanism is lost in a dazzling collision of social commentary, brash characterisation and coal-black humour.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 23, 2019

Labaki is so skilled at directing children here.

| Feb 23, 2019

It's harsh and abrasive, and sometimes difficult...but Labaki has layered the film with just enough moments of kindness to break your heart.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 22, 2019

Co-writer and director Nadine Labaki shoots "Capernaum" with a fluent, documentary-like realism.

| Original Score: B | Feb 22, 2019

[Director Nadine] Labaki elicits an astonishing performance from her young lead.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 21, 2019

Labaki directs the inexperienced cast sensitively, and mixes appalled commentary on the bureaucracy conspiring against the disenfranchised with the occasional indelible image.

| Feb 21, 2019

Capernaum is for fans of Slumdog Millionaire, not Pather Panchali: neorealism with bells on. Some scenes, even so, scar us and stay with us.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 20, 2019

Deep breathing is required to get you through some of the movie's tougher scenes but, as a whole, it's a testimony to human resilience and the astonishing power of hope.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Feb 20, 2019

With two astonishing child performances, Capernaum is a real heart-breaker. It can make Ken Loach look happy-go-lucky but it's a gripping, sympathetic cry for the dispossessed.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 19, 2019

A decent performance from Zain Al Rafeea, but the film is hectoring, contrived and simplistic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Feb 19, 2019

"Capernaum" overcomes its built-in clichés to forcefully tell a story as urgent as the latest breaking-news bulletin.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 6, 2019

"Capernaum" is a searing, unforgettable work.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 5, 2019

Labaki's film is an eye-opener - a seemingly authentic exploration of the world of the dispossessed of Lebanon's capital city, made by a director who is clearly passionate about bringing this particular story to world audiences.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 2, 2019

Labaki makes you want to squeeze into Zain's shoes, if just for a couple of hours.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 31, 2019