'Capernaum' to be released in India on June 21

After its immense success in China, Nadine Labaki's Oscar-nominated Arabic film 'Capernaum' is set to hit the Indian theatres on June 21.

The film lauded for its unique representation of the mistreated street kids and illegal immigration has been brought to India by filmmaker-distributor Ashwani Sharma through his production house Impact Films.

The trailer of the film starts with protagonist Zain appearing before a court handcuffed to file a lawsuit against his parents for giving birth to him when they can't raise him properly. The one minute 58 second trailer shows the boy living in a slum and doing odd jobs to make ends meet.

Later, Zain meets a woman who takes him home and he starts living with her. He can be seen babysitting the woman's son while she goes out to work. Towards the end, the woman gets separated from her son and Zain.

Talking about the film, Ashwani said "Even a cursory look at the film's images will give you a feeling that though the film had been shot in Beirut it looks like any big city in India and even the faces resemble our countrymen. It looks like any street in Mumbai or Delhi."

This film first shot into prominence during its competition screening in Cannes where critics were bowled over by its documentary-like realism. The film received an unheard of 15 minutes of standing ovation on its World Premiere. It was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes 2019 and later on went on to be nominated for Academy Awards 2019 in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

"We are very hopeful of a stupendous response to the film particularly after 'Capharnaum' clocked in unbelievable USD 50 million plus in China last month," said Ashwani.

Ashwani had earlier brought in films like 'A Fantastic Woman', 'Colette' and 'Berlin Syndrome'.