Sukkar banat (2007)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Nadine Labaki

Writers:

Rodney El Haddad (writer)
Jihad Hojeily (writer)

Release Date:

9 August 2007 (Lebanon)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A romantic comedy centered on the daily lives of five Lebanese women living in Beirut.

Plot Keywords:

Hairdresser | Marriage | Menopause | Senility | Affair

Cast

Nadine Labaki	...	Layale
Yasmine Elmasri	...	Nisrine (as Yasmine Al Masri)
Joanna Moukarzel	...	Rima
Gisèle Aouad	...	Jamale
Adel Karam	...	Youssef
Sihame Haddad	...	Rose (as Siham Haddad)
Aziza Semaan	...	Lili
Fatmeh Safa	...	Siham
Dimitri Staneofski	...	Charles
Fadia Stella	...	Christine
Ismaïl Antar	...	Bassam
Yousra Karam	...	Salon client
Victoria Bader	...	Salon client
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Nancy	...	Woman in taxi

Also Known As:

Caramel (International: English title)
Caramel (Argentina) (Venezuela) [es]
Caramel (Greece) [el]
Caramel (Sweden) [sv]
Caramelo (Argentina) (festival title) [es]
Karamel (Denmark) [da]
Karamel (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Karmel (Poland) [pl]

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements involving sexuality, language and some smoking.

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

France | Lebanon

Language:

Arabic | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | USA:PG | Argentina:Atp | Sweden:Btl | Ireland:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Germany:o.Al. | South Korea:12

Filming Locations:

Beirut, Lebanon

Company:

Les Films des Tournelles

Trivia:

Lebanon's Official Submission to the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).

Soundtrack:

Succar Ya Banat

promising

This is one of the few moments of my life where I could enjoy a movie without reading sub titles. This time it is not Russian, not Swedish, not Danish, not German and not Spanish. It is an art movie in my native Lebanese language.

The lovely acting of all the team, the superb cinematography of Yves Sehnaoui and the charming music of Khaled Mouzanar all joined to make a movie to remember.

This is a movie about woman's inner being; men are in the background and the women's disorders are all exposed in a very elegant way. Uncertainty of life, sexuality, marriage, mid life crisis and elderly all put together in a colorful plot of innocent people.

In Caramel, we also see Christian and Muslim women living together, working together, truly loving and supporing each other. Thanks to Nadine Labaki for this message during a period of secterian conflicts.

The Last scene of the 2 ladies holding hands is a painting. I can't wait to get it on DVD. This will sit at the heart of my art movie collection.