Nadine Labaki's directorial debut is a refreshing womance film showing remarkable sensitivity in depiction of the lives of five women with different issues. A great example of why a female voice is important when you tell stories about women.. Loved it! Such a beautiful movie.

ululation [ uhl-yuh-ley-shuhn ]
a long, high-pitched trilling sound resembling a howl, or the act of making such a sound, as to express grief or joy or as part of a musical performance

I lurrve the sound of ululation in the mornin'
Ok, just me then... hmm, let's move on.

Caramel is a sweet little rom-com focusing on the lives of a quintet of women and their families, doing their respective thing in downtown Beirut. Written by, directed by and starring Nadine Labaki in her feature debut, it's an easy watch but there's really nothing too remarkable here aside from the occasional vocal acrobatics.

It does look very pretty though. So much colour.

In unrelated news... here's a video of 2 x baby stoats: the cutest thing I've seen all week. You're welcome 💛

Soft, slice-of-life look at five women intersecting through love with different meanings, different contexts, different correlations to their culture/society. Each different context is viewed with warmth and sympathy, but there are subtle distinctions. The only queer relationship is very quiet, very understated, but somehow more joyous than several of the straight relationships. This is a story of women, and so how they relate to men is examined--without harsh critique but also not without compassion for the women--and so the non-closure of the story seems fitting because, of course, this is observational. But it also feels like it misses an opportunity for a deeper understanding.

Pride month: 11/30
52 project: 51/52

كان ممكن تنقص القصص عشان ماتنظلم بعضها بسبب مدة عرضها القصيرة. ومسار روز والرجل الفرنسي وليلي انا ممكن اشوف منو فيلم كامل.....

النص الأخير لعيون نادين وفساتينها الحلوا☺️

a sweet love letter to beirut, its women and their idiosyncrasies. nadine labaki has been someone whose work i've wanted to get into for a while, and i was so charmed by this film! the comparisons to almodóvar definitely make sense, but for whatever reason this resonated emotionally a lot more than any of his films that i've seen. part of that might be because i just finished reading the lebanese novel always coca-cola by alexandra chreiteh this past week and thematically there's some overlap between these two texts, as both are about young women in beirut, sexual repression, gender dynamics, even some menstrual discourse (more in the book than this film but still! we love to see it!)

tldr; i'm surprised this isn't mentioned more when anyone talks about films about female friendships! it's excellent and on amazon prime so hop to it!

(lebanon done!)

Washing someone’s hair really is the most sensual thing ever huh😔

كاراميل از ذَا نيو صبايا هههههههههه
يحزن ويضحك بالوقت نفسه كيف محاولات خلق قصص حُب بائسة في بيئة مو مهيئة للحب أصلاً .

محاولات مثيرة للشفقة لطرح مشاكل نساء بشكل مُهين لهن ، بإيطار أهم مافيه : حبني وأحبك ، روج وماسكارا وحبيبي وچوزي وختيبي 
 
حتى المرأة العاملة ظهرت بصورة هشّة قلقها وقضيتها الكبرى تقدمها بالعمر 

متأكدة إنّه النساء اللبنانيات العربيات يملكون طموحات أكبر وأبعد بكثير من الصورة اللي أظهرها الفيلم ، وحتى لو كان فيها نوع من الصحة لكن مو بهالسطحية والتشييء أبداً ! 

أكره أتكلم بكل هالحِدّة لكن هذا ما شعرت به .

التصوير وجو الفيلم بشكل عام كانوا بيرفكت ✨

قضايا كثيرة عُرضت بشكل لطيف جدا افتقرت للتشويق

لي لي ❤️

The sensual hair washing scene made me feel Seen as a Lesbian.

Nadine Labaki, i love you :-)

You have bowled me over with your charm.

Almost Almodovar-ish in nature this tale of friendship struggling to keep afloat amidst Heartbreak. Grappling with age. Finding true love is a Resplendent experience. My heart is beating fast!

Being absolutely no member of the target audience, the main topics beauty and fashion were not interesting for me. Nevertheless, I was surprised, how much I liked the characters and how less the picture of Beirut matched my (stereotypical) idea of an arabian métropole.

you get to stare at nadine labaki for 96 minutes

A luscious celebration of womanhood. A cinematic 'chic flick' which transports you to a different world.

Película bastante agradable que muestra el día a día de cinco mujeres libanesas que coinciden en un salón de belleza.
Tiene sus momentos interesantes y, quizás, hasta emocionantes.

Es una buddy film femenina con la cual pasar un rato entretenido. Tiene el final algo abierto, pero así es la vida.

Senin Beyrut'un bizim de Beyrut'umuzdur Nadine Labaki.

P.S İstanbul'un iki yakası hakkında yazılmış en güzel repliği barındıran filmdir.

Tekdüze bir senaryonun ötesinde Lübnan'da kadın olarak varolmayı anlatan nefis film...

ough so bittersweet......much like.........caramel B)

filmde anlatilan sey gercek değil

The songs by Racha Rizk make beautiful scenes much better. Also the character Lilly is so adorable. This has been a day inside a beauty salon somewhere in Beirut and I was there to witness

Well-balanced and technically astounding for such a young film maker, Caramel is an insightful study of the modern Lebanon, funny and touching to equal degrees. It has a deep love for its fully-fledged characters and lives from playful, sensual and witty moments that make it feel like a fairytale though one that is firmly grounded.

beautiful movie, an interesting way to get to know Lebanon traditionalism and women's struggle for emancipation

Somewhere between Love Actually and Shrek in terms of quality ... really quite beautiful ... emotional ...