The Lebanese film Capernaum continues to prove its outstanding worth, grabbing the hearts, and scoring massive praises wherever it lands.
After Lebanon, the Middle East, and Europe, it is China now that is taken in awe by this exceptional movie, and massively so.
Directed by our leading female filmmaker Nadine Labaki, the movie was released in mid-2018, scoring the Jury Prize of the Cannes Film Festival, to then make it recently to China for an extraordinary success with the public.
it is during the Capernaum‘s China premiere at the Beijing International Film Festival that Nadine Labaki unveiled the release date of the screening of the film in China.
“It’s a very big thing for us to release the film in China,” she said while giving a masterclass for movie buffs and college students at Shanghai University. “I hope the Chinese audience will be able to connect with the film.”
As China’s Office Box proves it so far, that is exactly what has been happening! Capernaum has just scored over $25 million dollars within its first week of screening!
Titled “何以为家” in Chinese, meaning “Where is Home”, Capernaum has only recently taken to China’s theatres, on 29 April 2019, and the figures keep rising exponentially.
Capernaum is distributed in China by the specialty distributor Road Pictures and Alibaba’s influential ticketing service and digital marketer Taopiaopiao.
In summer of 2018, Beijing-based Road Pictures acquired the rights to Capernaum for China at Cannes along with the Japanese film Shoplifters, winner of Cannes’ Palme d’Or. Both movies are deemed “two of the most celebrated movies of 2018”.
Capernaum has been remarkably well-received by the Chinese public. Scoring over 168 million RMB as of May 5th, which is around $25.22 million dollars, Capernaum becomes, as per Daily Box Office – China, the second top-grossing film internationally of the weekend, right behind only Avengers: Endgame.
Figures are not the only ones that talk of the extraordinary Capernaum. The public is raving about it. Reviews have been phenomenal, with so far a rating of 8.7/10 on China’s movie review site Douban.
The richly emotional and down-to-earth film tells the poignant story of 12-year-old Zain Rafeea, born in a poor family, and who lives in the slums of Beirut.
The storyline focuses on Zain’s tough life and leads to his attempt to sue his parents for child neglect.
The film is the winner of the 71st Cannes Jury Prize and a nominee for Best Foreign Language film at the 91st Academy Awards. In a limited-time release in North-America by Sony Classics, it earned $1.6 million.
