Passes the Bechdel test

Capernaum

Name: Capernaum
Released: 2018

2018. Directed by Nadine Labaki, written by Nadine Labaki and Jihad Hojeily and Michelle Keserwany.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
2 women characters. 2 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 1 scene out of 282.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In that scene, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Capernaüm ("Chaos") tells the story of Zain (Zain al-Rafeea), a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the "crime" of giving him life. The film follows Zain as he journeys from gutsy, streetwise child to hardened 12-year-old "adult" fleeing his negligent parents, surviving through his wits on the streets, where he meets Ethiopian migrant worker Rahil, who provides him with shelter and food, as Zain takes care of her baby son Yonas in return. Zain later gets jailed for committing a violent crime, and finally seeks justice in a courtroom.

Released: 20 Sep 2018
Genres: Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 8.4 / 10
Metascore: 75 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 38 wins & 56 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Zain 220 lines, man
Souad 53 lines, woman
Rahil 39 lines, woman
Aspro 36 lines, man
The Judge 28 lines
Maysoun 22 lines, man
Selim 22 lines, man
Sahar 19 lines
Officer 13 lines
Harout 10 lines, man

Full cast, 13 people

Zain Al Rafeea as Zain
Yordanos Shifera as Rahil
Boluwatife Treasure Bankole as Yonas
Kawsar Al Haddad as Souad
Fadi Kamel Yousef as Selim
Cedra Izzam as Sahar
Alaa Chouchnieh as Aspro
Elias Khoury as The Judge
Nadine Labaki as Nadine
Nour el Husseini as Assaad
Joseph Jimbazian as Cockroach Man / Harout
Samira Chalhoub as Daad
Farah Hasno as Maysoun

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 6 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 25% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 282

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 6	1	0
7 to 12	6	17
13 to 18	10	5
19 to 24	6	3
25 to 30	0	15
31 to 36	6	13
37 to 42	0	4
43 to 48	8	11
49 to 54	3	2
55 to 60	0	0
61 to 66	0	2
67 to 72	10	32
73 to 78	1	1
79 to 84	6	8
85 to 90	3	4
91 to 96	0	1
97 to 102	1	0
103 to 108	3	0
109 to 114	3	4
115 to 120	15	9
121 to 126	2	4
127 to 132	2	1
133 to 138	1	0
139 to 144	4	3
145 to 150	0	3
151 to 156	0	38
157 to 162	2	0
163 to 168	0	4
169 to 174	0	1
175 to 180	0	3
181 to 186	0	25
187 to 192	0	19
193 to 198	0	21
199 to 204	0	4
205 to 210	0	9
211 to 216	0	6
217 to 222	0	6
223 to 228	0	13
229 to 234	5	14
235 to 240	3	1
241 to 246	1	0
247 to 252	1	2
253 to 258	0	0
259 to 264	6	8
265 to 270	0	2
271 to 276	1	9
277 to 282	0	4

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scene

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

NADINE: Can I ask why the hospital refused to admit her? SOUAD: Because she doesn't have any papers.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 25 are women's.

110 lines from women, 331 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

2 women and 3 men in the cast. 2 women and 5 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 13 of 585. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 131 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 27% of the words (1,154), men 73% (3,063). Women have 25% of the lines, so their lines run longer than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

4 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 53% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Nadine Labaki (woman)
Written by: Nadine Labaki (woman), Jihad Hojeily (man), Georges Khabbaz (man), Michelle Keserwany (woman), Khaled Mouzanar (gender not listed)
Produced by: Michel Merkt (man), Khaled Mouzanar (gender not listed)
Shot by: Christopher Aoun (man)
Edited by: Konstantin Bock (gender not listed), Laure Gardette (woman)
Music by: Khaled Mouzanar (gender not listed)
Costumes by: Zeina Saab de Melero (gender not listed)