Caramel

Caramel (Arabic: سكر بنات, romanized: Sukkar banat) is a 2007 Lebanese film and the feature film directorial debut of Nadine Labaki. The screenplay was co-written by Labaki with Rodney El Haddad and Jihad Hojeily. It premiered on May 20, 2007, at the Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section, and was nominated for the Caméra d'Or. The story focuses on the lives of five Lebanese women dealing with forbidden love, binding traditions, repressed sexuality, aging and duty versus desire. Labaki's film does not portray Beirut as war-ravaged but as a warm and inviting locale where people deal with universal issues. The title of the film refers to an epilation method that consists of heating sugar, water and lemon juice, Building on the theme of "sweet and salty, sweet and sour" it shows that everyday relations can be sticky but ultimately the sisterhood shared between the central female characters prevails. Caramel was distributed in over 40 countries.