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"What a Home"
Directed by: Nadine Labaki
Genre: Drama
Country of production: Lebanon, UNITED States, France, Cyprus, Qatar, United Kingdom
Language: Arabic/Amharic
Suitable for: 12 years old and above
Runtime: 126 minutes, 117 minutes (China)
Film introduction
The film tells the tragic life of a 12-year-old Lebanese boy, Zain, who sues his parents for giving birth to him but failing to raise him well.
Character Introduction
Zain
Zain, 12, who grew up in a crumbling concrete high-rise building and the eldest son of the family, was forced to work to support himself and his sister, delivering deliveries to local grocers, dragging a wheeler taller than himself around, carrying heavy cargo, and taking care of his sister's life for his parents. Because poor parents still have many children to raise, Zain accused his parents that he hoped that all parents who could not take good care of their children would not have children.
Rahir
Ethiopian immigrants, whose lives are also full of pain, live in extremely simple dilapidated houses, work with a one-year-old son, and desperately try to buy a fake ID card. Despite the difficulties of life, even if he is in a desperate situation and may lose his freedom at any time, Rahill has never shirked his responsibility as a mother, but in the cracks of life, he has done his best to love and protect his children.
Synopsis
In a court in a small town in Lebanon, Zain, a 12-year-old boy, was jailed for knife wounds, but with the support of a lawyer, Zain sued his parents because they could not provide him with protection and security. Zain's parents were poor and couldn't afford to raise their children, which meant zain couldn't get an ID card, so Zain was a black household who wasn't eligible for a passport, couldn't go to school, and couldn't even get help in the hospital in an emergency.
Zain, the eldest son of the family, is forced to work to deliver goods to local grocers who have an evil interest in Zain's sister in order to support himself and his siblings. When Zain's parents sold their sister to a grocer, Zain ran to a seaside town where she met Rahil, an Ethiopian immigrant, who was a kind person who lived a little better than Zain, who hid that she had a one-year-old son, Jonas, who had been keeping her children on the shopping cart at work to evade the surveillance of employers and government departments, and where she lived in a small shed made of plastic and rubble, trying to save money to try to buy a fake ID card.
Movie reviews
Although the film is a title far from commercialization, this concept is very much in line with the work of Lebanese female director Nadine Labaki. The director's ideas and the plot elements of the film are very attractive, and the work has surprisingly become a blockbuster drama with a lot of information. The film's rich dramatic elements are illustrated by the ordeal of 12-year-old Zain, a child struggling to survive in Lebanon's slums. While the film's story is a bit unbelievable, the audience is struck when Zain tries to sue his parents in court, and the performances of non-professional actors underpin the film.
Casting director Jennifer Harder found the most suitable actors, whose life circumstances were closely related to the real backgrounds of the characters they played. Of course, this similarity between life and art doesn't necessarily determine the authenticity of their performances, but what makes the director special is that she has true empathy and patience, working with these actors, and having enough budget to shoot hundreds of hours of footage, with the aim of making the film more emotionally convincing. (The Hollywood Reporter review)
Moments of excitement