Capernaum

Zain is a twelve (or maybe thirteen, nobody knows) year old boy from a Beirut slum, in prison for stabbing a victim he still describes as a 'son of a bitch'.  He is brought before a court hearing his civil action against his parents for giving birth to him and the terrible life he was brought into.  That court scene will be returned to as the plot unfolds, but most of the action takes place several months before portraying the time before Zain's arrest.

Unschooled, but adept in surviving and hustling on the streets, the boy is the only son in a large family of girls and used as slave labour by his parents.  His 'duties' include taking false prescriptions into chemists to get pills which the mother smuggles into prison soaked into clothing.  When his 11 year old sister Sahar has her first period Zain tries to help her cover it up from their mother, but discovery is inevitable and she is to be married to the family's landlord (who is also Zain's boss at times).  He tries to protect her, but is can't fight the adults and runs away in protest.

Using his street skills, and through a series of unlikely alliances, and some encounters that bring in humour to alleviate the gloom, Zain survives and becomes a babysitter for Rahil, an Ethiopian illegal immigrant, and her son Yonas.  But even this ramshackle home doesn't work out for him and he is forced to look for alternative futures.  The ending will bring a resolution of sorts, but there's no end to the penury of the lives these people are forced to lead.

Throughout this we're aware that Zain has knifed someone, and a lot of potential candidates offer themselves up with so many adults messing his life up, and the real victim only emerges towards the end.  But also the sense that victims and culprits can often be one and the same, with the poverty and the environment offering so few options to escape.

The intro translates the title as "Chaos" and it's the chaotic nature of Zain's life that predominates, the lack of certainty other than the need to struggle to survive, the desperation of lives that lead nowhere.  That's strongly reflected in the filming, with frequent use of hand held cameras adding to the sense of turmoil.  Almost all the cast had no previous acting experience, indeed had never dreamt of doing so as many of them came from the slum world being portrayed (including Syrian refugee Zain Al Rafeea, who plays his fictional namesake), and this naturalism gives the drama a semi-documentary feeling, a sense that this is very much life as it is lived.

It's a simple enough tale, despite the outlandish legal premise it opens with, and occasionally strays towards the sentimental, but the gritty performances and the sense of loss in Zain's lost childhood are sufficient to overcome any such reservations.  Despite running for over two hours it never feels overlong and our interest in Zain doesn't flag.  Nor should it for all those he represents.

Highly recommended.