Donal Lynch on the world’s biggest gong show, p14-15

Capernaum Cert: 15A; Selected cinemas

Hard-hitting, courageous filmmaking arrives courtesy of inspirational Lebanese actordirector Nadine Labaki. Dismayed at the plight of unwanted street and refugee children in Beirut, Labaki and her team went into the slums, put their findings into script form, and cast a 12-year-old Syrian boy in the lead. In the background, her producer husband mortgaged the house (without telling her) to get the project completed.

If this information alone is an indication of what the issue means to these filmmakers, wait until you sit down with Capernaum — this is some of the most unflinching socialrealist cinema that 2019 will boast. Already a Prize winner at Cannes and nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar, this is a feature drama made with a sense of urgency that goes on to hit all its targets.

Currently doing a five-year stretch for reasons that become clear, Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) is simultaneously seeking to sue his good-for-nothing parents for raising him and his siblings without love nor means.

In flashback, we see the streetwise youth running away from home after his 11-year-old sister is sold into marriage.

He meets Rahil (Yordanos Shiferaw), an immigrant single mum who takes him in. Zain has to think on his feet to care for her infant son when she goes missing.

Feel-good fare it most certainly is not — but as an example of cinema’s power to face uncomfortable real-life truths, look no further.