Writer’s first offering is sexy, smart, full of style and substance

A film named after the sugary stuff that Arab women cook and use to wax their legs is up for an Academy Award, as the Lebanese selection for Best Foreign Language Film. Caramel, or Sukkar Banat, scheduled to open in Detroit on February 1, features an ensemble of non-professional actresses who won’t seem so non-professional when audiences exit theaters clutching handkerchiefs wet with tears and pants wet from laughter.

The film’s director, co-writer and lead actress Nadine Labaki, drives the story from within, playing Layale, the owner of a Beirut salon, who is in love with a married man and surrounded by a lively group of women who each have their own intensely painful stories. Labaki has said that rather than casting experienced actresses, she found women who were like the characters in real life. “I had to look for them in the streets and shops, in friends’ homes… That took some time but they are all very close to the reality of their parts,” she said. The film’s soft, caramel-colored lighting and intimate, slightly shaky camerawork gives it a warm, sexy feel. But the characters of different generations and different religions brought together by the Beirut setting, and the humor that turns intense social issues silly, make the movie more than a chick flick. The women make fun of each other and endure pain — both from the caramel hair removal and from their troubled lives — just like men would, but better. Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri), who works at the salon, is desperate to remedy the fact that she is no longer a virgin before her impending wedding night. Rima (Joanna Moukarzel), the salon shampoo girl, is a lesbian who suppresses her attraction to women, until her dream girl walks through the door ready to have her long black hair washed. Jamale (Gisele Aouad), a customer of the salon, is an aging divorced mother who goes to absurd lengths to hold back time. Rose (Sihame Haddad), a seamstress living nearby, deflects the attentions of a gentleman suitor to care for her senile, elderly sister (Aziza Semaan) — who is the gem of the movie, generating laughter that only a random old woman chosen off of a street in the Arab world could provide. And when Layale’s lover, beeps his car horn outside the shop, the other women roll their eyes, but they let her go. Born in Lebanon, the stunning Layale  studied film at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut, and went on to direct many award-winning music videos and commercials. Labaki was selected to develop the CARAMEL screenplay at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival’s Writers’ Residence.