Interviews

Video Interview: Nadine Labaki – Capernaum

Published on December 14, 2018

There is a sequence in Nadine Labaki‘s Capernaum where Zain (who now belongs to the Antoine Doinel film canon) proactively attempts to save the person who means the most to him. It’s an unfathomable, unshakable sequence that displays the survivalism and street smarts needed to make sense of a world not suitable for children. The Lebanese filmmaker and actress (a three time Cannes Film Festival invitee with her debut 2007 Caramel and sophomore 2011 film, Where Do We Go Now?) wowed film critics and the jury, landing not the Palme d’Or, but the Jury Prize.

Sitting down with the filmmaker in Toronto, some of the topics we covered were child neglect, conditions in the shoot, and how her cinema might have changed after this experience. Sony Pictures Classics release the Golden Globe nominated film in theaters today.

Related Topics:2018 Toronto Intl. Film Festival, Akram Safa, Alaa Chouchnieh, Antoine Khalife, Ayla Rizk, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Candice Abela, Capernaum, Cedra Izam, Chady Eli Mattar, Christopher Aoun, Cinema of Lebanon, Danny Glover, Elias Khoury, Fadi Kamel Youssef, Foreign Films Interview, Fouad Mikati, Georges Sarraf, Jason Kliot, Jihad Hojeily, Joana Vincente. Coproducer: Pierre Sarraf. Associate coproducers: Anne-Dominique Toussaint, Joslyn Barnes, Kawthar Al Haddad, Khaled Mouzanar, Konstantin Bock, Laure Gardette, Lebanese Cinema, Michel Merkt, Michelle Kesrouani, Nadine Labaki, Nour el Husseini, Ray Barakat, Samer Rizk, Sylvio Sharif Tabet, top-stories, Toronto International Film Festival, Wissam Smayra, Yordanos Shiferaw, Zain Al Rafeea

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).