The Stranger Child: Belonging, Statelessness, and Exclusion in Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum
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Abstract
This study examines the sense of social alienation experienced by the character Zain in Nadine Labaki’s 2018 film Capernaum within the framework of Georg Simmel’s concept of “the stranger” and Zygmunt Bauman’s ideas on migration and exclusion in modern society. The aim of the study is to reveal how the exclusion and statelessness experienced by individuals living on the margins of modern society are represented through cinematic language, narrative structure, and thematic elements. The study was conducted using a qualitative research method; the characters’ crises of social belonging, migration experiences, processes of identity loss, and themes of alienation were examined using thematic analysis. In addition, cinematographic elements such as the film’s visual language, camera use, choice of locations, and colour palette were evaluated in terms of their function in conveying these representations. In line with the findings, the film Capernaum strongly reflects Simmel’s definition of the “stranger who belongs to the group but is not fully part of it” and Bauman’s conceptualisation of the “waste human” or the phenomenon of the migrant individual who remains outside the system. The characters’ experience of exclusion and invisibility in the film is evaluated not only as an individual but also as a structural and political issue expressed cinematically.
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References
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