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Capernaum
A 12-year-old boy survive by his wits in present-day Lebanon in director Nadine Labali's emotionally wrought drama, which has been deservedly nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars. Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) lives in cramped conditions with his parents and siblings in Beirut. The family survives by smuggling drugs into prison. It's an ingenious scheme: the children soak clothes in Tramadol-saturated water, which are dried and taken into prison as gifts for inmates. The garments are placed back in water behind bars where the concealed drugs can be wrung out of the fibres. The illegal operation hits a snag and Zain's parents decide to raise funds by selling his younger sister Samar (Cedra Izam) as a child bride. The boy vows to make his parents pay and heads onto the streets in search of Samar. Eventually, Zain meets Ethiopian illegal immigrant Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw), who works as a cleaner at a rundown fairground. She offers him shelter in exchange for taking care of her baby. When Rahil is arrested and fails to return home, Zain finds himself in sole charge of a demanding infant and with no money for food or rent.
