Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Capernaum Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson October 17, 2020

It's truly remarkable that the best performances in Nadine Labaki's third feature Capernaum come from 12-year-old Syrian refugee Zain Al Rafeea and toddler Boluwatife "Treasure" Bankole. Zain lives with his parents Souad (Kawthar Al Haddad), Selim (Fadi Kamel Youssef), and six siblings (and counting) in a makeshift house within a Lebanese urban district. Zain's family is dirt poor and his parents have no interest or desire to send any of their offspring to school. They use Zain to transport a liquidated form of tramadol to his older brother in prison. Zain is close to and protective of his 11-year-old sister Sahar (Cedra Izam). Souad and Selim want to sell Sahar to their landlord Assadd (Nour el Husseini), who also runs a shop nearby. Zain feels abandoned and betrayed so he sets off on his own. He meets a cast of colorful characters along the way, including Cockroach-Man (Joseph Jimbazian), who wears a Spider-Man costume and claims he's a cousin of Spidey. Zain wanders into an amusement park where he encounters Eritrean refugee Rahil (Yordanos Shifera), a cleaner and waitress. Rahil keeps her adorable boy Yonas (Boluwatife Bankole, a girl in real life) in one of the park's bathrooms because she can't afford a babysitter. Rahil offers Zain to stay with Jonas and her in their ramshackle abode. But when immigration officials catch up to Rahil and threaten to deport her to Ethiopia after finding a forged visa, it's up to Zain to take care of Rahil's precious tyke.

Capernaum is an eye-opening picture that tackles poverty, parental neglect, trafficking, drug-running, and immigration with a sobering lens. The film neither devolves into "poverty porn"—as numerous critics allege—or becomes too saccharine or sentimental either. It treats all of these social issues with documentary realism.

The movie is told in a series of flashbacks after Zain takes his parents to court for giving him life. Why should they keep having children if they can't provide for them? Zain is serving a five-year prison sentence for a stabbing incident and the motive for his heinous crime later becomes understandable. The scenes he shares with Jonas are some of the most moving, including when he creates a reflection on a mirror or window from a neighbor's TV screen so he and Jonas can watch a cartoon.

Capernaum Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony presents Capernaum in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. The picture is generally bright with quite a bit of sun-dappled light and bleak whites. Color reproduction is solid with fine accented hues. Compared to the German and French discs released by Alamode Film and Gaumont, the Sony has boosted the brightness and contrast. The print is clean with no source flaws or compression artifacts. Sony encodes the feature at an average video bitrate of 27886 kbps.

Sony provides thirteen chapters for the 123-minute film. The Alamode and Gaumont discs include an additional scene and run 126 minutes.

Capernaum Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sony has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (1798 kbps, 16-bit). Spoken dialogue is in Arabic and Amharic. Sony's optional English subtitles appear in white with a sans serif font (see Screenshot #21). Spoken words are fairly distinct and relatively easy to hear. The lossless sound track delivers the bustle and noisy traffic of downtown Lebanon with very good range and depth. Composer Khaled Mouzanar's string-laden score often rises above the ambience. In one instance, I heard the violins rise at least one octave and the front channels soared with them. Sony has also included an English Dub encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (640 kbps).

Capernaum Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Nadine Labaki and Producer/Composer Khaled Mouzanar - Labaki is joined by her creative partner and husband for this feature-length. She dominates much of the commentary, reflecting on the many children see saw in the slums and prisons. Mouzanar explains stylistic choices he made in scoring certain cues. Labaki and Mouzanar both speak in English, which is pretty comprehensible to my ears. I was pleasantly surprised to see Sony include optional English subtitles (see Screenshot #22).

• Q&A with Director Nadine Labaki, Actor Zain Al Rafeea, and Composer Khaled Mouzanar (22:04, 1080p) - Labaki, Al Rafeea, and Al Rafeea gather for a post-screening chat. They're joined by an English-speaking moderator. Labaki heads the discussion and translates for young Zain, who is still too young to have learned English. Labaki talks about the casting process and actors. Mouzanar delves into his music scoring decisions and his duties as a producer. Zain is asked what it's like to act at such a young age and if he found it challenging. Mostly in English with spoken translations.

• CAPERNAUM: A Look Behind the Scenes (12:40, 1080p) - B-roll footage depicting various scenes shot throughout Lebanon. They show Labaki directing Al Rafeea and other actors; Labaki is also shown interacting with her crew members on location. With English SDH.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:14, 1080p) - an official trailer Capernaum that Sony created after it appeared at numerous festivals. It's presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD 5.1 Suuround [CHECK] and subtitled in English.

• Bonus Previews - trailers for Never Look Away, The Wife, Sunset, All Is True, and Ladies in Black. Only Never Look Away and Sunset are subtitled in English. These load in succession after the disc is inserted and can also be accessed through the menu by clicking on "Previews."

Capernaum Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Capernaum, which translates as "chaos" in English, captures the diaspora of Lebanon with unflinching power and insight. It's one of the essentials in the canon of contemporary Middle Eastern cinema. I was often reminded of Héctor Babenco's Brazilian crime drama, Pixote (1981), which Jeff recently covered as part of Criterion's Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, No. 3. The pair would make a great double bill if you can stomach it. Sony's 1080p transfer is clear but has amplified contrast compared to the French and German's BDs, which are not English friendly. Sony does offer the most extras of all editions and that includes Spirit Entertainment's UK BD-50, which only has the featurette, Capernaum: A Look Behind the Scenes, and the trailer. (Apparently, though, the Spirit disc does have the longer cut.) Despite some qualms I have, the Sony disc earns a HIGH RECOMMENDATION.