Nadine Labaki, Caramel

Photo Credit: http://yalibnan.com/site/archives/2007/08/24/caramel%20snapshot%205.jpg

by Rebecca Elmquist
04/08/2008

The beauty shop setting of this charismatic drama fits, but is rather misleading. While initially superficial, after watching Caramel I was both enlightened and moved. If one was uninformed about the country of Lebanon, after watching this movie they would never have guessed how war-tormented the country actually is. This film is a celebration of culture, love, generational differences and the capital, Beirut itself.

Layale (Nadine Labaki) the main character and director, plays alongside a group of women who all are dealing with issues of their own. Layale is in love with a married man, who will never commit himself to her and she deals with this rejection throughout the movie. Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is set to be married to a Muslim, but is not a virgin. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) is struggling with her sexuality, she is a closeted lesbian. Jamal (Gisèle Aouad) is over concerned with her aging appearance. Rosie (Sihame Haddad) owns a tailor shop and takes care of her mentally ill sister Lili (Aziza Semaan), who frequently provides humor throughout the film.

The film is built around various unjust customs Lebanese women have to face. For instance, when Layale tries to get a hotel to celebrate the anniversary with her married lover, she is refused by many hotels and is finally accepted into one but mistaken for a prostitute. Also, when Nisrine and her fiancé were chatting after a date together outside of Nisrine’s house, he was arrested for not providing legitmacy of the location being that of her parents.

Through the portrayal of these Lebanese women there is a realization that friendship remains and there is hope for the future. The universality of issues and problems that women face is a common theme. Women of most cultures face loneliness, the loss of youth, rejection and sexuality issues. This movie is an enjoyable, “Sex and the City”-esque, heartfelt classic.

This movie premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and received great reviews. It was distributed in over 40 countries. The movie review blog Rotten Tomatoes gave Caramel a 92 percent rating on their “tomatometer."

It is now at our local Ciné through Thursday April 10. The showtimes are Tuesday and Wednesday 4:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Thursday just 4:00 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.

Technorati Tags

Comments [post a comment]

more film

more from rebecca elmquist