Rebecca Pang

As an agnostic, I found the film encouraging as the two Popes, two of the arguably most powerful men in the world stage, share the humility with ordinary humble people by confessing their own human weaknesses. After all , they are not God, “not even a part of God” as Pope Benedict said to Pope Francis in the film. Religions have offered people lots of spiritual support but at the same time, the film also tells us we can choose to believe what we should believe in the religious teachings (in this case Catholicism) but don’t over rely on the sample behavior of the religious leaders coz they are only humans after all! The fact that the real Pope Francis declined a request from the Dalai Lama for a meeting in 2014 for fear of annoying a dictatorial government in China is a case in point.

Excellent movie with a powerful accusation of those parents who don’t deserve to be parents, not just in a slum in Lebanon but could be anywhere in the world when children are totally neglected, abused and unloved. I like the subtext about the irresponsible behavior of adults who never thought of the meaning of being parents, but chose to be parents who could never provide love and care for their children. The film doesn’t explain the reasons why Zain, the 13-year old boy’s parents’ keep having children despite the fact that they can hardly provide the basic needs for their kids, let alone love and care, but one wonders if the director wanted to point out the disastrous consequences when people just follow their ‘blind’ faith in religions or traditions which condemn contraception or allow young girls to be forced to get married like Zain’s 11-year old sister, Sahar who ended up dying during giving birth.