- Born
- Height5′ 5¾″ (1.67 m)
- Nadine Labaki was born on February 18, 1974 in Beirut, Lebanon. She is an actress and director, known for Where Do We Go Now? (2011), Capernaum (2018) and Caramel (2007). She has been married to Khaled Mouzanar since October 2007.
- SpouseKhaled Mouzanar(October 2007 - present)
- She appears mostly in controversial stories and roles
- Speaks fluent French, English and Arabic.
- One of Variety's '10 Directors To Watch' (2007).
- Holds the insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.
- Older sister of costume designer Caroline Labaki.
- Studied media at Beirut's Saint Joseph University.
- [speaking about Capernaum (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.
- [press conference for Capernaum (2018) at the 71st Cannes Film Festival] I'm not personally familiar with the topics addressed in the film - I wasn't an ill-treated child - this is a topic I don't really know personally. So, in order to be consistent and to fully reflect what these children go through, and to also convey with power this major cause, I had to plunge into the situation. The film provides a lot of home truths - there are very few things in the film you can really condone - and I wanted to research things in minute detail. We did a lot of research work therefore, before writing the film. For me it was important to be very close to the reality, what these children actually experience in the streets. We visited a lot of difficult areas in Lebanon, we spent a lot of time with children, we went to the juvenile prison, detention centre, we went to see NGOs that try to help these kids in difficulty and this final statement [in the film] is inspired by the answers I got to all the questions asked. In 99% of the cases, when you ask these children, "Are you happy to have been born?", they all say, "No. I'm not pleased to be here. Why was I born? Why am I here? Why did you bring me into existence? Why, parents, did you have me if you aren't able even to love me, if you can't respect my most basic rights, if you're going to throw me into the street, then why did you have me in the first place?" It's a huge anger that wells up, a sense of revolt. We held long discussions and the kids didn't say this after just 5 minutes, you have to get to know them, they have to trust you, and bit by bit, the idea of this court case came to me very naturally - it appeared self-evident - it had to be a child who's going to try and sue his parents for having him in the first place.
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