Set in a fictitious Middle Eastern village (much like Where Do We Go Now?), Capernaum takes Labaki’s unique cinematic microscope to the region’s countless neglected children “excluded from society” — the youths who fall through the cracks in the system and are left to fend for themselves. At its heart is a 12-year old (Zain Al Rafeea) who decides enough is enough and sues his parents the "crime" of giving him life.
Capernaum was made with a cast of non-professionals playing characters whose lives closely parallel their own. Following her script, Labaki placed her performers in scenes and asked them to react spontaneously with their own words and gestures. When the non-actors's instincts diverged from the written script, Labaki adapted the screenplay to follow them.
"A fairy tale and an opera, a potboiler and a news bulletin, a howl of protest and an anthem of resistance… The sources of (the film’s) remarkable energy are Ms. Labaki’s curiosity and the charisma of her young star, Zain al Rafeea… You might see a trace of Huck Finn in Zain… Like a Dickens Hero… His charm and magnetism amount to a kind of moral authority.”
– A.O. Scott, The New York Times