Caramel movie review

Director: Nadine Labaki

Starring: Nadine Labaki, Adel Karam, Ismail Antar, Aziza Semaan, Yasmine Elmasri

Thus far, you have to admit, Lebanese film makers haven’t made much of an impact on the cinema-going habits of the Irish public. This film, however, should at least put Beirut on the film lover’s movie map.

Don’t be misled by the title. This is not a sugar-sweet magical fantasy in the ‘Chocolat’ vein. It’s a robustly realistic look at the lives of five women in modern Beirut. It’s not a breast-beating, hand-wringing, art movie either. It’s a little cracker, in fact.

The five main characters are all linked to a suburban hairdresser’s salon. The caramel of the title is the sugar mix which Middle-Eastern women use as a hair-removal wax. The wax, which is sweetly edible, inflicts the kind of pain that only women can comprehend – men rarely go for a Brazilian bikini line.

This mixture of pleasure and pain makes a good metaphor for the lives of the women being portrayed. The great thing about the movie is that by the end, you really believe in the characters, and see how much like us they are.

The religious and social mores of the Lebanese make for a complex mix. Christians and Moslems live in close proximity. Many of the moral expectations of people who seem otherwise modern are positively medieval. One of the women has to have surgery in order to fake virginity before her wedding. Another fears cutting her hair – ‘What would the family say?’  On the upside, there is a lesbian sub-plot which dare not speak its name, but still sails pretty close to the wind. The painfully close relationship between two elderly sisters, one suffering from dementia, is the most moving love story in the film. Others are cute, but briskly handled.

Caramel is, in tone, like Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe as it would have been had Pedro Almodovar been the writer/director.

The cinematography is top quality. There are no scenes set around potential tourist attractions, and the streets of the battered city don’t look particularly inviting in themselves. However, by the end of the film, when the dedication ‘To My Beirut’ appears on screen, it’s difficult not to find yourself thinking ‘I must go there some day’. Quite an achievement.

Go and see Caramel if you like solid, well written, well-acted movies that stay with you for days afterwards.

PS

Caramel is in French and Arabic and has subtitles. If this bothers you, don’t worry, it simply means you’re either dyslexic or a moron.