CARAMEL. (2003)
Directed by Nadine Labaki
Labaki’s debut, she writes and stars, as well as directing, is as sweet as the title suggests, but infinitely more fulfilling. Set in and around a beauty salon in Beirut, CARAMEL is warm, funny and hugely affecting. Labaki is a winning lead, beautiful and sympathetic, while her female support is equally assured.
Labaki told me that the film was a love letter to women and to her city, each is evident from every frame of her film, a film that focuses on four women, their attachments, insecurities and the obstacles in their way. Labaki’s character is having an affair with a married man, while the local policeman covets her from afar. One of the other salon girls is battling against the ravages of age, another is determined that her betrothed should believe her to be a virgin on their wedding night, while the fourth is involved in a sensuous, yet chaste, fling with a female customer.
Every shot of Labaki’s film is imbued with light and colour, it radiates warmth throughout. It’s impossible not to fall in love with her, and her city. The most affecting moments come from two older generations of Lebanese women, an older woman being romanced by a customer at her store, and her increasingly senile mother. The relationships ring absolutely true from start to finish, and it’s a work of complete assurance and huge charisma.
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