Caramel is a romantic comedy drama
set in a Beirut beauty salon, where five women regularly meet and
confide in each other. Writer-director Nadine Labaki takes the
lead role as Layale, a beautiful thirty year old woman who's in
love with a married man, while oblivious to the fact that a local
cop (Adel Karam) has a crush on her. The other women include:
co-worker Nisirine (Yasmine Al Masri), who is desperate to
prevent her Muslim fiance from discovering that she's no longer a
virgin; Rima (Joanna Moukarzel), who develops a crush on one of
her female clients; Jamale (Gisele Aouad), a divorcee who is
afraid of growing old; and Rose (Siham Haddad), an elderly
seamstress who has devoted her life to taking care of her
slightly bonkers older sister (Aziza Semaan), but who experiences
a glimmer of romantic possibility when a male client asks her out
to dinner.
“Labaki treats her characters with
wistful tenderness, raucous practicality, and enough romantic
chutzpah to give almost every woman a moment, at least, when she
can have exactly what she wants” Ella Taylor,
The Village Voice
