She’s one of only three women nominated for the Palme d’Or.
Actress and director Nadine Labaki, the woman behind critically acclaimed film Caramel, is up for one of her industry’s top honours.
Capernaum is the Lebanese filmmaker’s fourth outing as a director. It’s up for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, where it will make its debut.
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Labaki’s film is one of 18 shortlisted for the award, including films from Jean-Luc Goddard and Spike Lee.
Only two other women are nominated: France’s Eva Husson, for Girls of the Sun, and Italian Alice Rohrwacher with her film Happy as Lazzaro.
While Cannes opens on May 8, there isn’t yet a trailer for Labaki’s movie. Details are scant, but Variety said in 2016 that the film was to be a “political and contemporary fable” in a similar vein to her other films.
“[Capernaum] will have the same humour et humanity as Nadine Labaki’s last films – it will mix fiction and documentary-style realism and will star all fresh new faces, mostly non-professionals,” producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint told the site.
Based on an original story by Jihad Hojeily, a regular collaborator of Labaki’s, Capernaum is set in the Middle East. Arab News reports that it follows a young boy who decides to sue his parents for his birth.
Here’s the trailer for 2012’s Where Do We Go Now, to give you an idea of Labaki’s style:
We can’t wait to see Capernaum. Here’s hoping for a wide release.
Labaki isn’t the only director from this part of the world to be honoured at Cannes this year. Egypt’s A. B. Shawky is also nominated for the Palme d’Or for his film Yomeddine. Both Syrian Gaya Jiji and Morocco’s Meryem Benm-Barek are included in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival.
We’re backing them all, and you know we’ll keep you informed as to how they go at the festival.
Not to mention the red carpet looks…
Images: Getty
