Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Capernaum (2018) A Film Contemplation

 


For this film , prepare yourself for an uncomfortable dive into third world living, mostly through the eyes of an undocumented refugee boy named Zain. The film highlights his courage in standing up to live the most honorable life possible given his circumstance. Though fiction, the apocryphal element of the struggle of the poorest children in the direst of circumstances comes through in rusty spades.

My central take away from the film is that far too many children are being born into a world that isn't caring for them. Religions and family tradition trumpet the sacredness of birth when planned parenthood is what is needed. Humanity's opium isn't religion itself, but the religious and societal appropriation of evolutionary instincts to push young people into reproducing without sufficient forethought. Too often birth control and good sex education are absent where needed most.

And in the end, it's good secular education that is needed across the board. People can make better decisions if they aren't deluded with ancient traditions that were crafted for another time, a time when most children died young and when child labor was the norm.

I highly recommend everyone watch this film, if only to open our eyes to the reality beyond our first world comfort. Acting with compassion and reason can only work if we understand the challenges that run deep across the human dominated global society.

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