After shattering multiple records all throughout 2019 with her award-winning film Capernaum, Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki, along with husband and longtime collaborator Khaled Mouzanar, are back. The filmmaker duo are part of a Netflix anthology series featuring 17 short films by a powerful roster of acclaimed directors from all across the world.
The film, titled Mayroun and the Unicorn, is an intimate, quirky vignette starring only their quadrilingual daughter in what is frankly itself an Oscar-worthy performance. (And, if we're honest, a whole mood.)
"This question has been tormenting us as parents for a while: how are our children perceiving or living in confinement? What goes on in their minds?" says Labaki of her short. "When the producers of Homemade contacted us to be part of this project it was the perfect occasion for us to explore this dimension.”
Filmed during the pandemic, all of the films featured in the Homemade anthology were entirely shot by filmmakers in quarantine and using only equipment found at home. The list includes an all-star slate, including Kristen Stewart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ladj Ly (2019's Les Miserables) and Rachel Morrison (Black Panther).
“For once in our careers, this wasn’t about money, agencies, lawyers, or the Hollywood structure,” says producer Juan de Dios Larrain. “This was a simple idea of conveying one message in five to seven minutes, and the idea was to give that message without any pressure; it was totally open.”
‘Homemade’ debuts today, June 30th, on Netflix worldwide.