Chichester Cinema at New Park
Caramel
Sukkar Banat
CHICHESTER INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
And the Winner for Best Foreign Film is…
A selection of the official 2007 Oscar submissions for Best Foreign Film:
The Lebanese Submission-
Former music video director Nadine Labaki makes her feature debut with this charming tale about five women working in a Lebanese beauty salon. Its title may be derived from the homemade caramel used to wax its clients' legs but might just as easily refer to the perpetual golden light bathing its protagonists in this social comedy of manners.
Layale, played by the director herself, is in the death-throes of a failing relationship with a married man. As her colleagues battle with their own dilemmas - Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) is desperate to keep a secret from her fiancée, while Rima (Joanna Moukarzel) finds herself falling in love with a female client - Labaki draws together a beguiling tapestry of life in modern-day Beirut and all its contradictions, as Christian and Muslim, young and old, religious and secular, all live and work side by side.
The film eschews the political turmoil of Lebanon, producing a sparkling social comedy of manners, drawing laughter and tears with equal proficiency. (Subtitles)
(Tickets £6)
France · 
Lebanon · 2007 · Nadine Labaki · 95min
