Nadine Labaki facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Nadine Labaki
نادين لبكي
Labaki in 2012
Born	Nadine Antoine Labaki (1974-02-18) February 18, 1974 (age 51) Baabdat, Lebanon
Education	Saint Joseph University
Occupation	Actress, director
Years active	1997–present
Spouse(s)	Khaled Mouzanar ​ (m. 2007)​

Nadine Labaki (Arabic: نادين لبكي, romanized: Nādīn Labikī; born February 18, 1974) is a talented Lebanese actress, director, and activist. She first became well-known as an actress in the early 2000s. Her journey as a filmmaker began in 2007 with her first movie, Caramel. This film was shown for the first time at the famous Cannes Film Festival. Nadine Labaki is known for showing what everyday life is like in Lebanon. She also explores important topics like war, poverty, and feminism (which means supporting equal rights for women). She made history as the first female Arab director to be nominated for an Oscar. This nomination was for Best Foreign Language Film for her third movie, Capernaum (released in 2018).

Early Life and Education

Nadine Labaki was born in Baabdat, Lebanon. Her parents, Antoine and Antoinette Labaki, are Maronite Christians. Her father is an engineer, and her mother takes care of their home. Nadine grew up during a difficult time in Lebanon. For 17 years, she lived in a country affected by war, until the civil war ended in 1991.

Early in her life, Nadine learned how to tell stories from her uncle. He was the family's hakawati, which means a traditional storyteller. Her grandfather also owned a small theater in Lebanon. This is where she discovered her love for movies. She started her career in 1990 on a Lebanese talent show called Studio El Fan. She won an award on the show for directing different music videos.

Around 1989, Nadine moved to Montreal, Canada, for three years to escape the war in Lebanon. She also became a Canadian citizen.

Nadine studied audiovisual arts at the Saint Joseph University in Beirut. In 1997, she directed her graduation film, 11 Rue Pasteur. This film won the Best Short Film Award at a festival in Paris. Nadine is special among Lebanese and Arab filmmakers because she learned her craft in Lebanon, not in another country.

In 1998, she took an acting workshop in Paris. With her sister Caroline Labaki as a producer, Nadine directed commercials and music videos for popular Middle Eastern singers. She won several awards for these works. She wanted to show Lebanese women as confident and comfortable with themselves.

Career as a Director

In 2003, Nadine Labaki started to become very popular in Arab media. That same year, she began directing music videos for singer Nancy Ajram. One of their songs, "Akhasmak ah" (Yes, I'll fight you), caused some discussion because of its dancing scenes. Some people thought Ajram's character, a waitress, was too bold. But Labaki explained that Ajram was actually showing a strong and confident female character. Labaki and Ajram worked together to create a new image for Arab women. They showed them as feminine, charming, and in control. Ajram continued to work with Labaki on other music videos like "Ya Salam" and "Lawn Ouyounak." These videos also won awards for being the best music videos.

Labaki in 2007

In 2005, Labaki spent six months at the Cannes Film Festival Residence. During this time, she wrote Caramel, her first full-length movie. In 2006, she directed and also acted in Caramel. The movie shows a side of Beirut that many people don't know. Instead of focusing on political problems, it's a comedy about five Lebanese women who work at a beauty salon. They deal with everyday issues like love, relationships, traditions, and life's ups and downs.

Caramel was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and was a big success. It was sold all over the world and won important awards at many film festivals. This brought Labaki a lot of praise as both a director and an actress. In 2008, the French Ministry of Culture gave her a special award called the Insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.

In 2010, Labaki directed and starred in her second movie, Where Do We Go Now?. This film uses humor to talk about a serious topic. It's about a village in the Middle East where Muslim and Christian women try to stop their men from starting a religious war. The idea for this movie came to Labaki in 2008 when she was pregnant. At that time, Lebanon was facing a lot of conflict. Labaki saw friends becoming enemies because of religious differences. She wondered how far mothers would go to stop their sons from fighting. This idea led to the story of the women in the film who work together to prevent violence. The story takes place in Lebanon, but it's not directly stated. Labaki wanted the film to feel universal, meaning it could happen anywhere. Like Caramel, her second film used actors who were not professionals. Labaki believes that "normal people deserve to be on the big screen."

Where Do We Go Now? was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. It won the Cadillac People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. It also won many other awards at festivals around the world. The film was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles. When it first opened, it had the highest number of viewers for an Arabic-speaking film in Lebanon.

In late 2013, Nadine Labaki started working on her third movie, Capernaum. This film was chosen to compete for the Palme d'Or, a top award, at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. The movie tells the story of a 12-year-old boy living in the poor areas of Beirut. He tries to sue his parents for bringing him into a world of suffering and not taking care of children. Labaki wrote the script with Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Kesrouani, Georges Khabbaz, and her husband, Khaled Mouzanar. Mouzanar also produced the film and wrote its music. The title Capernaum means 'chaos'.

For three years before writing the script, Labaki did a lot of research. She talked to children living in the city to hear their stories and experiences. She mostly used non-professional actors for this film. The main child actor, Zain Al Rafeea, was a Syrian refugee found playing in one of the poor areas. Labaki describes her filmmaking style as "very organic." She wanted to give a voice to these "forgotten children" and use her movies to create lasting change.

Labaki's films often use special lighting, atmosphere, and silence to help show their meaning. Even though the political situations in Lebanon can be difficult, Labaki continues to make films that don't just focus on conflict.

Capernaum won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Labaki also won Best Directing at the 12th Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

She was chosen to be on the jury for a section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. After the success of Capernaum, a big talent agency called Creative Artists Agency (CAA) started representing Labaki.

Her movie Capernaum was nominated for an Oscar in the foreign-language category in 2019. This was a first for a female director. She is the first female Arab director ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Working with the UNHCR and UNICEF, Zain Al Rafeea and his family were moved to Norway. He and his siblings are now going to school for the first time. Labaki says this is the greatest reward.

Career as an Actress

Nadine Labaki started acting in short films in the early 2000s. She starred in Zeina Durra's The Seventh Dog. This film won an audience award at a festival in Venice in 2006.

In 2006, Labaki acted in "Bosta," a Lebanese musical comedy. The film was very popular and earned more money than "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" in Lebanon.

In the same year, Labaki acted in her first full-length movie, Caramel.

Labaki also starred in Stray Bullet, directed by Georges Hachem in 2010.

She appeared in the Moroccan film Rock The Casbah, directed by Laila Marrakchi. She acted alongside Hiam Abbas and Lubna Azabal.

She has also acted in her own films, Where Do We Go Now? and Capernaum.

Labaki often acts in her own movies. She feels that when she acts with the people she casts, they feel more comfortable. She likes to make things up as they go along, and when she's in the film, it's like directing the scene from the inside.

Jury Work

In 2021, Nadine Labaki was chosen to be a jury member at the 11th Beijing International Film Festival. She helped decide the winners for the Tiantan Awards.

Themes and Directing Style

Themes in Her Films

Nadine Labaki grew up during the Lebanese Civil War. Because of this, her films often explore themes of violence and difficult experiences.

Labaki's movies encourage people to care about important issues. These include the refugee crisis and poverty. Even though her films often deal with war and sadness, they also include humor. Her movies show the impact of the Lebanese Civil War on the country. Her own experiences deeply affected her and how she makes films. As a director, she feels she needs to do something good for her country. She decided that talking about problems like poverty and the refugee crisis is very important.

In 2018, Labaki talked about her movie Capernaum, which was nominated for an Oscar. She said her team came up with ideas for the script like "child labor, rights for migrant workers, children's rights, the strange idea of needing papers to prove you exist, the strangeness of borders, and early marriage." She believes that "cinema can be a way to [create] change." She has said that politics and art are connected. She sees her films as her own "way of revolt." According to Labaki, "Sometimes, a line in a film, or a scene can make you think about yourself, about your decisions. By touching your hearts, films can offer hope more than politics." Labaki's films don't offer easy answers for Lebanon's problems. But she hopes her movies will "simply shake audiences out of their chronic laziness." She has stated that her filmmaking and activism are the same. She believes that movies can bring about social change.

Another common theme in her work is feminism and stories about women. She does this by focusing on the daily lives of women in the Middle East in her films. Through her movies, Nadine Labaki connects ideas from the Arab world and the Western world. Her focus on women's rights shows how ordinary women are affected by complex situations. These situations are often caused by decades of political problems.

Her Directing Style

Labaki often casts actors who are not professionals in her films. She finds men, women, and children who live in the real neighborhoods shown on screen. They then act out scenes based on their own experiences. This often happens in some of Beirut's toughest areas. Labaki does this to make her films feel as real as possible.

Labaki is also known for spending a long time researching and choosing the actors for her films. She deeply understands the lives of the people she features. For her film Capernaum, she spent four years researching the mistreated children in Beirut. She gave her actors very little direction. She used hand-held cameras to capture life on the streets of Lebanon. For her film Caramel, she spent almost a year looking for women who fit her characters. She purposely did not want professional actors. She explained that the natural reactions of real people make the story more believable. This helps show women supporting each other as they deal with their problems. The filmmaker gathered months of raw video footage. She later edited it down to just over two hours.

Labaki said she was inspired by a photo of a 3-year-old Syrian refugee. The child's lifeless body caused anger around the world. She said, "I remember thinking if this child could talk, what would he say, and how would he address the adults that killed him?" She added, "I wanted to become their voice, their vehicle for them to express themselves."

In a 2012 interview, Labaki said: "I have a problem with injustice. I have a problem with seeing the wrong things around me and just not saying anything about them." She likes to talk about important issues and show them through her art. This includes acting, directing, or even dance. Her movie Where Do We Go Now? includes a lot of dance. In the same interview, she mentioned that she used to be a dancer.

Personal Life

Nadine Labaki can speak many languages. She is fluent in Arabic, French, English, and Italian. In 2007, she married Khaled Mouzanar, a Lebanese musician and composer. In 2009, Labaki had her first son, Walid. Seven years later, in 2016, Labaki gave birth to a daughter named Mayroun.

In 2016, Labaki received an honorary degree from the American University of Beirut. She also gave a speech at their 150th graduation ceremony.

Involvement in Politics

In 2016, Labaki was a candidate for a new political group called Beirut Madinati. This was for the local election in Beirut in May 2016. Beirut Madinati focuses on fairness in society and helping the public. They use a diverse group of citizens to represent people.

Even though the movement received about 40% of the votes, it lost to its opponent, the Beirutis' List. This group was supported by Saad Hariri. Beirut Madinati did not win any seats in the election.

Filmography

Feature Films She Directed

Short Films She Directed

• Rio, I Love You segment: O Milagre
• Homemade, Labaki directed Episode 11 of this Netflix series. It features short films made by filmmakers during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Films She Acted In

• Ramad (Ashes) – a short film by Joanna Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige (2003)
• The Seventh Dog – a short film by Zeina Durra
• Non métrage Libanais (2003) – a short film by Wissam Smayra; Role as Nina
• Bosta – a long feature by Philippe Aractingi; Role as Alia
• Caramel or Sukkar Banat (2007) – Role as Layale
• Stray Bullet (2010) – Role as Noha
• Al Abb Wal Gharib The Father and the Foreigner (2010) by Ricky Tognazzi
• Where Do We Go Now? (2011) – Role as Amale
• Rock The Casbah (2013)
• Mea Culpa (2014)
• Rio, I Love You (2014) – Role as herself
• La Rançon de la gloire (2014)
• The Idol (2015)
• Capernaum (2018) – Role as Nadine
• 1982 (2019) – Yasmine
• Costa Brava, Lebanon (2021)
• Perfect Strangers (2022)
• Swimming Home (2024)
• The Sand Castle (2024) Premiered at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December 2024. It is directed by Matty Brown and is about a family of four stuck on an island.

Awards and Nominations

Other Work

In 2014, Labaki became a goodwill ambassador for The Brave Heart Fund (BHF). This group helps raise awareness and money for operations for children with heart problems. These children are from families who cannot afford the medical care. The BHF is based at the Children's Heart Center at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

See also

In Spanish: Nadine Labaki para niños