Caramel

By Robbie Collin

MY hopes were high for Caramel after the film company told me about it on the phone.

Turns out I misheard—it's about the relationships between four Lebanon girls.

Those tissues turned out to be useful after all, though, because this film from foxy and talented actress/director Nadine Labaki packs a hefty emotional punch.

Caramel follows the lives and loves of five women who meet up regularly in a beauty salon in the Lebanese capital.

But this is no battery chick flick. Nadine and pals are real women with real stories to tell, not intensively-farmed Hollywood dimbos.

Their stories are funny and touching in equal measure—the perfect match with the smooth, sexy camera work which brings their exotic city to life on screen.

In fact, it's sort of like the Sex And The City girls shipped out to Beirut.

And you can't say THAT doesn't sound like a good idea.