Caramel - سكر بنات, directed by Nadia Labaki

'Caramel' tells the story of five Lebanese women from different generations and religious backgrounds who meet in a Beirut beauty salon. They use the 'Caramel' in the title to wax their legs.

The feature film concentrates on the five women. Layal, played by Nadine Labaki, works in the beauty salon in Beirut along with three other women. Each one has a problem: Layal has an affair with a married man, Nisrine, a Christian is set to wed a Muslim, Rima is lesbian and Jamal frets about growing old.

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Labaki describes the filmmaking process:

"The film came from personal questioning I have about Lebanese women [who] are an example of emancipation, of liberty, of independence for other regions in the Middle East. Lebanese women are really doing what they want in their lives. But at the same time, there is this struggle with their traditions, their religion, their education. It is still a little bit rigid. So it is a struggle between these two worlds.



"When you think about Beirut, normally you see a grey picture, you see smoke, you see buildings that are destroyed, you see women crying in the street. This is what comes to your mind when you see the word Beirut. And I wanted to change that. I wanted to make a film that was colorful and about warm people, because this is also our reality. I think I come from a generation that doesn't want to look back, that doesn't want to talk about war anymore. It wasn't easy in my case, because I finished the shoot and a week later the war broke out again. So I had a huge feeling of guilt. Why was I making a film about life when my country was at war? But then I thought maybe this was my way of struggling, of resisting: making films about life [in a time of war].

Sources: Blogging Beirut, Ya Libnan, Premiere