Caramel (Sukkar Banat)

Review by Sonia Caballero

The short: 

Layane and her colleagues in a beauty salon unveil situations of sexual repression and judgement experienced by women in Lebanon.  

The long: 

Directed and starred by Lebanese Nadine Labaki, Caramel was first premiered in 2007 Cannes Film Festival, where it achieved international attention instantaneously, although it was Where do we go now? the movie that rose Labaki to fame. Following the director’s thematic line, Caramel portrays the daily life of a group of women whose love and family dynamics are complicated, forbidden or socially unacceptable like homosexuality, premarital relations, and mix-religious marriage. Caramel is also a sugar-lemon epilation method (for waxing, plucking, etc hair) very popular in the 90’s among young ladies. Like this substance, the relationship between the movie’s protagonists is sweet and sour, but ultimately, it will stick forever. 

To watch or not to watch:

Different personalities and so many emotions that it is hard to classify Caramel in only one genre! That is why everyone should give it a try: drama, comedy and social denounce. All together in a memorable hour and a half.