Nadine Labaki’s ‘Capernaum’ and the human rights discourse: An analysis in visual history

Abstract

This article explores Nadine Labaki’s movie Capernaum and its depiction of human suffering in Lebanon, especially of children, thus placing it at the intersection of the human rights discourse and film studies. Utilising contextualised sequence analyses, it is argued that the movie uses the premise of having a boy sue his parents for giving him life, knowing their living conditions, as a metaphor and framing device by which a light is shined on the inequalities connected to a life lived in poverty. The use of differing localities, the contrast of two mothers, as well as the depiction of the kafala system’s repercussions on the individuals involved are shown as various avenues in which human rights are violated despite the characters’ best intentions. The director’s activist mindset is argued to influence this presentation in a number of ways, among them the cinematographic style that borrows from documentaries as well as its scope, which makes it suitable to being included on the film festival circuit and thus reaching a bigger audience.

Contribution: This article thus contributes a novel approach to exploring the depiction of human rights and their violations on-screen by considering both narrative and visual devices, funding and director’s intents, as well as the larger cinematic context in which the respective work of art lies.