Caramel

Caramel is a warm and funny comedy from director Nadine Labaki. It takes place in Beirut and it revolves around five women who are connected with a beauty salon.

Labaki plays Layale who lives at home with her parents and is involved with a married man. Nisrine (Yasmine Elmasri) is about to be married but has a secret that she has to face up to. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) just happens to prefer women. Jamale (Gisele Aouad) is trying to get back into acting on commercials. Rose (Sihame Haddad) devotes her life to taking care of the mentally challenged Lili (Aziza Semaan).

During the movie you get to know these women and have a feel for what their lives are like. And they feel like real people and I wanted to find out more about each one of them. We get to see what it is like to live over there but, happily, we don't get to see any religious fanatics because this film has nothing to do with religion or politics.

All of the acting is good and Ms. Labaki is the best of all. She is truly talented.
I look forward to seeing what she does in the future and I hope that she gets some well deserved recognition in this part of the world.

The title is named after the sticky and sweet substance that people love to eat. But here the substance is also used to remove body hair. I recommend Carmel to those of you who enjoy slice of life films. I would say that women might like this film better than men but I think that an enlightened man will like it as well.