Capernaum

THE GIST: A poor, large, Lebanese family barely scrapes by. Zain, the oldest child, but still a kid, runs away when fed up with the cruelty of it all. He later meets a young illegal migrant and the two strike up a friendship, both unaware of the hardships to come.

Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, Capernaum is quite stunning for its sheer rawness, the range of emotions the little kid so capably portrays onscreen, and the soul shredding lives people in those conditions have to endure.

As mentioned, young Zain Al Rafeea is just magnificent, as is Yordanos Shiferaw.

THE BOTTOM LINE: An excellent example of why it's so important for the most prestigious awards bodies in the world to hand out nominations and trophies to lesser known works that might otherwise never have a chance of being noticed. Absolutely recommended.

Grade: 8