Nadine Labaki

Speaks fluent French, English and Arabic.

[speaking about Capharnaüm (2018) at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival] The title of the film really occurred to me even before I'd even written the first line of the screenplay. I got together with my co-scriptwriters and my husband also, who's involved in writing my films. As usual, we talked about what my next film would talk about, what themes were my obsession at the time, and Khaled said to me, "Well, write down all the themes you want to talk about." So we talked at length and suddenly I looked at the list and I thought, "It's a Capharnaüm." And that's how the title of the film came. It was the beginning of a real adventure. I wanted to talk about the system, which in my view isn't working very well. In my research work I also thought that we could think about some alternative system to the issues of mis-treated children, immigrants, migrant workers, modern slavery, the idea of borders, a piece of paper which determines your entire life and gives you a real existence and a status - all these things that I address in the film. Without papers, people are totally excluded from the system and that's the problem with all the people in the film. No one has an ID card - everyone is illegal in the country. At the end, Zain ends up getting a passport; in fact, these characters had been residing illegally in the country and just a piece of paper acquires an absurdly huge importance.