This movie touches one of the core principles that drive me: don’t bring kids into this world if you cannot provide a better life for them. Better than the ones you yourself were subject to. Having one child—or even no children—and giving them a good quality of life is, any day, far better than bringing five kids into the world and letting them struggle their entire lives.
The film’s protagonist is a young boy named Zain. The movie opens with a scene where Zain is suing his parents for bringing him into this world. Born into a lower middle-class family with many siblings, Zain is forced into a level of maturity far beyond his age. He helps his family survive by earning small amounts of money on the streets of Lebanon. As the story progresses, the film keeps challenging this maturity by putting him through increasingly difficult situations. These burdens slowly pile up to a breaking point, and that breaking point is what leads directly to the core principle the movie talks about.
The performance of the actor who played Zain, Zain Al Rafeea, is top notch. I am usually a sucker for plots where something greater is demanded from an individual than what they are usually capable of addressing. Even more so if the individual is a kid. Zain has to demonstrate this scenario multiple times through out the film. He shows great maturity in his effort to take care of his sister and also later on when he has to tend to the needs of a toddler. All alone.