Caramel: your purchase benefits LCC programmingLevantine Center presented a special director's screening of "Caramel" with Nadine Labaki at Raleigh Studios on January 17, 2008, in which Labaki described finishing the editing in France while Lebanon was under attack as fighting broke out between Hezbollah forces and the Israeli military. Watching a story set in Beirut before the 2006 Summer War gave viewers an eery feeling, after we had observed media images of wanton destruction of the country's roads, bridges, towns and villages. Nadine Labaki was clearly saddened by the effects of the war she had managed to escape, while others, including friends and family, struggled to survive an extensive bombing campaign far worse than anyone could have imagined—despite having lived through Lebanon's civil war, 1975-1991.

The London Review wrote of the film, "Aside from being beautifully shot and containing several wonderful scenes, Caramel also presents an intriguing portrait of life in modern-day Beirut, with Christians and Muslims living side by side and happily going about their lives-politics are left very firmly in the background." 

Variety weighed in: "Caramel underscores that being Arab cannot simply be equated with being Muslim, as it portrays five women of different religious and social backgrounds gathered together in a Beirut beauty salon...All of these stories could belong to any woman, and director Nadine Labaki thereby omits the clichés about Arab women to concentrate on the lives and loves of her characters. They don't define themselves as 'Western' or 'Arabic,' but above all as people with typical human joys and problems..."

Seattle Post-Intelligencer movie critic William Arnold commented, "It would be easy to categorize the Lebanese women's picture 'Caramel' as a Levantine combination of 'Sex in the City' and 'Beauty Shop,' but it's actually a lot smarter, sharper and deeper than that...The movie is filled with activity, and most of the scenes come off with just the right light-handed touch. It's an immensely warm and likable saga that finds nobility in its characters. Without being sappy, it shows their lives as not only tragic but also magical.

"Amazingly, the movie makes absolutely no reference to Lebanon's endless wars and religious conflict—as if to say: That's what you may see on the news, but this is what daily life in Beirut is really like. Somehow, that's a comforting statement."

Definitely a film worthy of your collection.