Film Description
| Caramel | ||
| Director: | Nadine Labaki |  |
| Country: | Lebanon/France | |
| Year: | 2007 | |
| Language: | French/Arabic | |
| Time: | 95 minutes | |
| Rating: | 14A | |
| Principal Cast: | Nadine Labaki, Yasmine Al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gisèle Aouad, Adel Karam, Sihame Haddad | |
| Trailer: | View the trailer for this film | |
| SCREENING TIMES | |||
| Friday, August 15, 2008 | 9:30 PM | Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery* | Tickets: $10.00 at |
| *For information on wine tour and tasting packages, click here | |||
Sponsored in part by Youssef Hair Boutique Inc.
"Heat the sugar." The command comes with the urgency of a surgeon, or a lover. And if the sweet, sticky substance is applied with a caress, it gets ripped away like a slap in the face. The women of Beirut will suffer for beauty. Pleasure has its price.
In her gorgeous and love-affirming feature debut - which was the sleeper hit of this year's Cannes Film Festival - Nadine Labaki finds gold in the hot goo used to strip body hair. Set in and around a Beirut beauty salon, Caramel stirs together the smooth and the crunchy of five women's lives. Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is a spirited bombshell on the verge of marrying a conservative Muslim - but she is no longer a virgin. Jamale (Gisèle Aouad), an aging actress, goes to absurd lengths to hold back time. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) suppresses her attraction to other women, until her own dream girl walks through the door. Seamstress Rose (Sihame Haddad) deflects the attentions of a gentleman suitor to care for her older sister. And Layale, the owner and lifeblood of the salon, carries on a hopeless - but very satisfying - affair with a married man. When her lover beeps his car horn outside the shop, the other women roll their eyes, but they let her go.
Labaki herself plays Layale, leading an ensemble cast that generates enormous warmth and wit onscreen. As director, Labaki gives the film a rich visual field, shooting the salon with a touch of Wong Kar-wai in her layered, burnished compositions.
There is a new kind of film coming from Lebanon, one that looks past war and politics to the eternal truths of love and passion. This is where the impressive women of Caramel find their strength. If Nisrine needs to be a virgin again, they will find a way. If Layale needs a man who is actually available, maybe he can appear right there in front of her. And when there's a beauty problem to be solved, the women will heat the sugar.
