A bittersweet confection which casts a rare gaze upon the pleasures, longing and desires of a group of women living in the Middle East.
“Heat the sugar.” comes the command, with the urgency of a surgeon, or a lover. The sweet, sticky substance is applied with a caress, but gets ripped away like a slap in the face. The women of Beirut will suffer for beauty.
In her feature debut - which was the sleeper hit of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival - Nadine Labaki exudes hints of Penelope Cruz, in the role of Layale a beautician stewing in an affair with a married man. Around her, a multigenerational bevy of colleagues and clients cope with lesbian urges, menopause and senior dating in a society hostile to all three. This is a beauty-parlor romantic comedy with a difference. Caramel is set in a Beirut and gives us with a unique, colourful and sensual microcosm of this city we identify so much with war, destruction and death. Its exuberant sensuality and astute commentary on the preoccupations of this group of Lebanese women is refreshing.
A perfect blend of wistful tenderness and raucous practicality, gives this film depth that is complimented by a refusal to provide uncomplicated fairy-tale endings for these tough, lonely, independent women.
Dir. Nadine Labaki - 2007 France/Lebanon - 95 mins - Cert PG - Momentum Pictures
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