What are the highlights of Capernaum?

I watched another Lebanese film, Capernaum, which gained a good reputation after last year's humiliation. As at this time last year, this work was selected as one of the top five best foreign language films in the Oscar, and it is also a strong contender for this award.

Both films were shot in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, but unlike Humiliation, which was mostly shot indoors, the extensive use of location and real-life shooting in Capernaum brought us closer to this country, enabling us to touch her real edges and corners more closely.

Director Nadine Labaki's control of image texture in Capernaum is impressive. Shame is more dramatic, while Capernaum focuses on expressing "emotional details" through the picture itself, which is somewhat similar to the idea in Rome.

A large number of hand-held follow-up shots and semi-documentary live shots, as well as overhead shots that restore the little boy Zain's perspective to the greatest extent, are actually the same as Caron's intention of tirelessly shaking the long mirror, and more of an image presentation expressed by the director's artistic attitude. In every frame of Capernaum, we can read Labaki's emotional concern for the trauma in this land.

The film begins with a series of aerial shots, seemingly "scratching his boots", but in the next 100 minutes, Labaki completely puts down such an ambiguous character and goes straight to the character and his details. Narrow corridors, messy rooms, dusty streets, and the unruly eyes of the protagonist Zain.

The use of non-professional actors adds a strong sense of substitution to the film. We soon realized that what we were watching was not "a play" or "a meaningful story", but the present situation and life itself.