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Many in the West think of Lebanon as a country torn apart by civil war. And so it was for many years. It is also one of the few places in the Middle East where many different peoples have lived together in relative harmony. It is that harmony that Nadine Labaki shows us in Caramel, Lebanon’s submission for Oscar^® consideration. The story revolves around a beauty salon and five women who work or visit there. They come from different backgrounds and each faces her own challenges in life, but they also share a commonality.

Layale, the owner of the salon, is a Christian who is having an affair with a married man. She wants their relationship to be more than it is, but she learns that it never will be. She struggles with her faith and her sin. Her friend Nisrine works in the salon. She is Muslim and soon will be married, but is concerned because her fiancé doesn’t know she is not a virgin. Should she have surgery to “restore” her virginity? Jamale is aging, and refuses to accept the fact. She goes to great lengths to convince people she is not going through menopause. Rima, who washes hair at the salon, is attracted to women, but has a hard time accepting that. One day a beautiful stranger comes into the shop and Rima is smitten. Rose is a 65 year old seamstress who has let life and love pass her by to take care of her elderly sister, Lili, who is slightly insane. When a handsome older man begins coming to the shop for alterations, he brings the hope of romance.

These women, different as they all are, form a caring community. They are there for one another in all of the joys and sorrows of life. They all are enjoying Nisrine’s preparations for the wedding; they are also there when she goes to the clinic in contemplation of surgery. No one ever confronts Jamale with her age; they allow her to live life as she wants it to be. When things go badly in one of their lives, the others are there to bring comfort and support.

On the most basic level, this is a women’s movie. (I don’t mean to denigrate the film at all by that categorization.) It focuses on the lives and trials of women. Many of the problems these women face are not limited to their own setting. The struggle with the worship of youth certainly is as common in our own country as it is in Lebanon. The difficult search for love that runs through the stories of Layale and Rose is true everywhere. Some of these issues may be slightly exaggerated by the setting in Lebanon, but they are also the concern of women around the world.

The title of the film comes from the hot caramel they use for hair removal (in America we use wax). This sweet tasting paste can also burn and hurt. It is one of the things women have to endure at the salon to fit a certain model of beauty. On the other hand, it can represent the sweetness that they find in this beauty parlor and the friendships they have there.

There is also a deeper meaning that both men and women could benefit from. Director Labaki says, “Today with the tensions that reign in Lebanon, Caramel contains a message nonetheless: in spite of the opposition between the different religions, reactivated by the war, cohabitation and coexistence are natural. At least that’s how we should live.”

The women of Layale’s salon are indeed a model for a world in which what we have in common outweighs any differences.