Caramel(2007)

I came to know about ‘Caramel’ when i was looking at the list of winners of Asia Pacific Screen Awards(2007).When i decided to watch the movie i was a bit suspicious about the credibility of the film,but it turned out to be a wonderful experience.
Caramel is a film about Lebanese women who work in a Beauty salon.The film deals with the lifes of five women who are very different from each other.The film is directed by Nadine Labaki,who also stars as one of the women,.Unlike many feminist films Caramel does not show the hardships of women,it does not show the social issues related to women,it does not show the political issues related to women but Caramel shows the normal life and behaviour of common women.


The female characters in the film are just amazing.Each character is designed in such a way that it is very close to reality and very far from our imagintion.Some might anticipate of having characters like a social activist,jounalist,Human Rights member etc… ,none of the charater in the film resembles of anything which i have mentioned above,it is just simple representation of a common women and beautiful execution of the perceptions,convictions and infatuations.
Three of the five female characters work in the Beauty Saloon,two characters are the female customers of the Beauty Saloon and the other female character is an middle aged women. Nadine Labaki inspite of directing her first film she did not fall into the obvious trap of Character exxageration she just keeps everything at limits without overshadowing one character over the other.


Layale (Nadine Labaki) is in a relationship with a married man, Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is no longer a virgin but she is engaged with her boyfriend,Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) has homosexual feelings, she is attracted to women and she becomes close to one of her female customer.Rose (Sihame Haddad), a tailor with a shop next to the salon, is an old woman who had devoted her life to taking care of her mentally unbalanced older sister Lili (Aziza Semaan), but she falls in love with an old guy,Jamale (Gisle Aouad), a regular customer and wannabe actress, is worried about getting old and makes others believe that she is young.

The intimate relationships and the sexual feelings does not dominate on the screen,its the sisterhood between those women which dominates .There are some obvious mistakes in the film which Nadine Labaki could have avoided , but Caramel being her first film the mistakes can be overlooked.

I being a male recommend this movie to everyone because of the beauty and simplicity of ‘Caramel’.I am not being gracious or compassionate towards Carmel but this is the kind of film which i have been looking for many months.