São Paulo – In Beirut, at the Sibelle beauty parlour, five women meet regularly. In between haircuts and hair removals using caramel (a traditional Eastern recipe that mixes sugar, lemon and water), they talk about love, sex, marriage, motherhood and maturing.
Caramel, by the Lebanese actress and director Nadine Labaki, will debut in Brazil on June 5th in movie theatres in the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The film is basically comprised of short stories told by those women, of different ages, that meet at the parlour. Nisrine is a Muslim and is going to get married, but she is no longer a virgin and does not know how to tell her fiancée. Jamale does not want to get old. Rima is attracted to women. Rose let go of her own life to care for her older sister. Layale is the mistress of a married man and hopes that he will leave his wife some day.
The director chose to work with women who are not professional actresses. Aside from herself, who is an actress and plays Layale, all of the other women have different occupations in real life. Labaki wanted women who resembled the characters in daily life – both physically and personality-wise. She had to look for them in the streets, in shops or at friend’s houses.
According to information supplied by Imovision, the company in charge of distributing the film in Brazil, more than a sociological work or a summing up of the Lebanese society, the film is a reflection on various questions by the director regarding Lebanese women. Obsessed with appearance, they seek their identity in between the image of the Western and Eastern woman. As emancipated as she may be, the Lebanese woman feels conditioned by traditions, education and religion.
There is the notion of sacrifice in order to please her parents, children, husband and family. In every phase of her life, there is always a model to follow – one that often does not correspond to what the woman would like to be. The Lebanese woman, either Muslim or Christian, lives at odds with what she is, what she would like to be, and what she is allowed to be.
Caramel was born during the Residency project at the Cannes Festival, shot by actress and director Nadine Labaki in 2004. The feature film was selected for the 2007 Toronto Festival and for the Director’s Fortnight in the 2007 edition in Cannes.
The soundtrack was composed by Khaled Mouzanar, who is a musician and Nadine’s husband. Mouzanar made the soundtrack into one of the film’s characters, mixing Western and Eastern music.
About the director
Nadine Labaki was born in Lebanon in 1974. She graduated from the Saint-Joseph University in Beirut (IESAV) in audiovisual studies, where she made the film 11 Rue Pasteur (1997), awarded as the best short film at the Biennial of Arab Cinema of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), in Paris (1998).
Later on, she worked with advertising and as a director of music videos by Middle Eastern singers, with which she won awards in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, she participated in the Residency project of the Cannes Festival, for the writing of the screenplay for Caramel, her first feature film.
Technical information
Original title: Caramel
2007, France, 95 minutes
Comedy
Directed by: Nadine Labaki
Produced by: Anne-Dominique Toussaint
Screenplay: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Rodney Al Haddad
Original soundtrack: Khaled Mouzanar
Director of photography: Yves Sehnaoui
Editing: Laure Gardette
Distribution in Brazil: Imovision
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
