CANNES-Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, who won one of the top prizes at Cannes on Saturday with a story of dirt-poor children and migrants, dedicated her award to her deserving and poor kids and amateur cast and her homeland.
Nadine Labaki is the first Arab-Muslim woman who had won the prestigious award at Cannes Film Festival 2018 and only the second to have had a film competing for the Palme d’Or.
Her stirring film “Capernaum”, whose 13-year-old Syrian refugee lead captured hearts in Cannes, had been tipped to win the Palme in a bumper year for films from North Africa and the Middle East.
Accepting the third-placed Jury Prize, Labaki said her thoughts were with a 12-year-old cast member, who she discovered selling tissues on the street, and who had probably again spent the day with “her face pressed against car windows”.
“I really think about them (the cast). I hope the film will enable the voices of these children to be better heard and trigger a debate,” she told reporters.
The charming winner said that she was “almost ashamed to be wearing such beautiful dresses” to promote her film about a boy who takes his parents to court for bringing him into a miserable, loveless existence.
“Capernaum”, which won a 15-minute standing ovation at its premiere, and Labaki talking about her thinking said that “notion of borders, of having to have papers to exist, of being completely excluded from the system if you don’t have them, of the maltreatment of children, modern slavery, immigrant workers, Syrian immigrants”.
let’s have a look at a clip from the documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0yjVaHNYW0
