Caramel (2007), which marks Nadine Labaki’s debut both as a film director and a writer, follows the life of five Lebanese women as they deal with issues of love, relationships, sexuality, and age. Most of the events of the movie take place in a beauty salon named Si Belle in Beirut, where women from all walks of life gather around to gossip, bond, and get the latest trendy look.
The film has no particular plot and just takes the viewer through the day-to-day happenings in these women’s lives as they each battle with their inner demons and the restraints imposed on them by traditions and customs. Layale (Nadine Labaki) is in love with a married man that refuses to leave his wife so that their secret relationship becomes something Lebanese society would respect. Rima (Joanne Moukarzel), who finds herself not relating to the model of femininity the other four women embody, is attracted to women. Nisrine (Yasmine Al Massri) is from a conservative Muslim family and is about to be married, but is haunted by the fact that she is not a virgin as she is expected to be by her soon-to-be husband and her family. Jamal (Gisèle Aouad) is a wannabe actress and is constantly going from one audition to another with no actual success. And Aunt Rose (Siham Haddad) is an old tailor who takes care of her elder mentally disabled sister, Lili.
The place that brings the experiences of all these women together is the salon that Layale, Rima, and Nisrine work at. The camera always shows the outer appearance of the salon before it cuts to the many events that happen inside which sets an interesting analogy to the real experiences of these five women and the public image they’re wrestling to maintain. Si Belle is old and dusty on the outside and its build is retro. Most notably, the letter “B” of the shop sign is dangling upside down and is seemingly about to drop down any moment. The interior of the salon, though may not be the sleekest out there, is colourful and organised and communicates hopeful and warm undertones.
Although the three women working in Si Belle have the power to brighten up any of their customers’ day by fixing their hair or makeup, including their friend Jamal who is a regular, they battle ugly realities that they cannot simply just ‘fix’. Layale’s work is constantly interrupted by Rabih’s random calls (her married lover) and blinded by love she immediately drops whatever she is doing and drives to meet him, a habit that both Nisrine and Rima dislike. Nisrine eventually decides to go through an operation to achieve a semblance of virginity before her marriage. Rima finds herself constantly dodging the other women’s remarks on why she never wears dresses or high heels or waxes her body hair. Jamal, on the other hand, is a divorced almost middle-aged woman who is obsessed with maintaining a youthful look since her aspirations as an actress demand that. Her obsession with appearing youthful gets her to the extent of faking menstruation.
But amidst all the challenges these women face in their lives, Labaki still draws a hopeful image for the future of these women. The movie ends with Nisrine’s wedding ceremony with all the five women singing, clapping, and dancing along to some traditional Lebanese wedding songs. At this point of the movie, Layale seems to have moved on from Rabih, Rima has a potential relationship with one of Si Belle’s most elegant customers, and Nisrine is marrying the man she loves. As for Jamal and Aunt Rose, the two older characters, things remain ambiguous. What is clear though throughout the movie, is the solidarity these five women share with each other across their differences and their willingness to be emotionally present for each other. Labaki presented these differences in age, marital status, and sexuality as something that did not pit these women against each other as is usually expected.
Despite the political turmoil that Lebanon was going through in the early 2000s, the movie chooses to focus on the ordinary lives of five women instead. This choice is refreshing because Middle Eastern cinema deals a lot with war and violence in its storylines which feeds into a stereotypical image that has been perpetuated by both Western and Middle Eastern cinema. However, there are still brief moments where political conflict can be detected, mainly in the scene where Nisrine and her fiancé were talking in the latter’s parked car at night when a policeman knocks on the window asking whether they are married and for the man to present his identification. The fiancé refuses to do so as he sees nothing morally wrong with what he’s doing and ends up briefly in jail. Nepotism is what gets him out eventually.
Caramel was Lebanon’s official submission to the 80th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and it grossed over a million dollars in the US. The movie is available to stream on Netflix.