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ANNE-DOMINIQUE TOUSSAINT presents A fi lm by NADINE LABAKI INTERNATIONAL PRESS Chris Paton In London WORLD SALES DDA 192-198 Vauxhall Bridge Road London SW1V 1DX In Paris United Kingdom 58, rue Pierre Charron Switch: +44(0) 20 7932 9800 75008 Paris email: [email protected] Tel.: 01 53 53 50 58 Fax: 01 42 89 26 93 In Cannes Hotel Majestic In Cannes Salon la Baule RIVIERA E1/F2 10 La Croisette Tel.: 04 92 99 32 11 06400 Cannes contact@roissyfi lms.com Cell phone: 06 18 61 76 36. Synopsis In Beirut, five women meet regularly in a beauty salon, a colourful and sensual microcosm of the city where several generations come into contact, talk and confide in each other. Layale loves Rabih, but Rabih is married. Nisrine is Muslim and her forthcoming marriage poses a problem: she is no longer a virgin. Rima is tormented by her attraction to women and especially to this lovely client with long hair. Jamale is refusing to grow old. Rose has sacrificed her life to take care of her elderly sister. In the salon, their intimate and liberated conversations revolve around men, sex and motherhood, between haircuts and sugar waxing with caramel. Interview with Nadine Labaki How would you sum up your film? a very intimate angle, they are never judged. The woman who does hair Briefly, I could say, “It’s the story of five Lebanese women, five friends of removal sees us naked, in every sense of the word, because that is a different ages who work or meet in a beauty salon in Beirut.” If I were moment when we cannot cheat. Little by little, we tell her about our lives, to develop on that a little, I could add, “In this typically feminine world, fears, plans, love affairs, etc. these women - who suffer from the hypocrisy of a rational oriental system in the face of western modernism - help each other with the problems Why the title CARAMEL? that they encounter in relation to men, love, marriage and sex...” Today, It refers to the product for removing unwanted hair in the Middle East, in that part of the world, Lebanon appears as an example of an open, a blend of sugar, lemon juice and water that is boiled until it turns into free and emancipated society. But that isn’t always true. Behind the caramel. This mixture is spread over marble to cool a little. And it is façade, we are still subjected to many constraints, the permanent fear of turned into a paste used to remove unwanted hair. other people’s looks and their judgement of us. In this context, Lebanese But “Caramel” is also the idea of sweet and salt, sugary and sour, of the women are eaten up by remorse and guilt. In the hair and beauty salon, delicious sugar that can burn and hurt you. my heroines feel safe. It’s a place where, even if they are looked at from Tell us about your characters. Let’s start with Layale, the role you play. She is the owner of the salon. A young woman of 30, Christian, who still lives with her parents like virtually all young, unmarried women in Lebanon. Her jewels show her love of the Holy Virgin and her words reveal that she is attached to her religion. Layale is in love with a married man and is his mistress. That’s the perfect example of the contradiction. On the one hand, there’s her family that she doesn’t want to disappoint, her religion, a protective cocoon and, on the other, this man on whom she is totally dependent and who represents a complete taboo, a transgression. For a first film, it can’t have been easy to direct and act at the same time? I admit that I hesitated for a long time. I was tempted by the idea of acting but I was afraid it would hurt the film. Luckily, I took that risk because it allowed me to direct the scenes from the inside. Since the actresses were non-professionals, I could drive the film along by being as close to them as possible. Especially as, since I wanted each one to keep her own way of speaking, I didn’t give them any dialogue to learn. Was the use of non-professional actress a deliberate choice or a simple coincidence? I wanted women who, in real life, are like their characters. I had a very precise idea of their physique, their personality, the words that they would use and I didn’t want character parts. 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. And Rima? She is a young girl of 24, a bit of a tomboy, who does the shampoos in the salon. Silent and introverted, she isn’t voluptuous and coquettish like the others. Rima is looking for herself. Little by little, we discover that she has a penchant for women. But is she really aware of it? Joanna Moukarzel is a business manager with a large electrical appliances company. I was quickly won over and charmed by her spontaneous, vibrant side. Who is Nisrine? A Muslim woman of 28, Layale’s friend, who works in the hair salon. She is about to get married to a Muslim boy who doesn’t know that she is no longer a virgin. This is a big problem for her. Should she tell him? Or get herself stitched up like many other Lebanese girls in this situation do? Yasmine Al Masri who plays the part isn’t an actress. She was born in Lebanon from an Egyptian mother and a Palestinian father. She is a good friend that I met in Paris where she studies Fine Art and oriental dance. All her work, her struggle even, revolves around the woman’s body. Nisrine couldn’t be anyone but her. And Jamale, the client? Jamale is friends with all the girls in the salon. We don’t really know how old she is or her religion. She is so afraid of growing old that she struggles to hide the fact that she is going through her menopause. Life is nothing but show to her. Many women in my country are in this situation because a Lebanese woman’s powers of seduction play an important role in her life. Jamale wants to become an actress because, after having devoted her life to her children, she wants to shine and exist, especially as we discover that her husband has dumped her for a younger woman. In real life, Gisèle Aouad is a personal assistant. She has a generous, extrovert personality that is ideally suited to the part. And Rose, the seamstress? Rose is a Christian aged 65 who lives next door to the salon and who knows all the girls well. She has never married because she has sacrificed herself for her slightly crazy sister. When she meets a man, Charles, she lets love pass by, out of a sense of sacrifice no doubt, but also by censoring herself. In Lebanon, when you’re a widow, divorced or a “spinster”, you’re no longer allowed to be in love after a certain age. Otherwise, you become a laughing stock, you’re made to look ridiculous and you’re an embarrassment to the people around you. In this closed society, guilt arises from bonds with the family and religion whichever one it may be. Sihame Haddad, who plays Rose, is a housewife. I was immediately attracted by her personality, which is touching in spite of her restraint. And then there’s the beautiful and mysterious woman who calls in from time to time and whom we don’t know anything about. Not even her name! She is the perfect example of the perfect woman. Hair, silhouette, clothes... She is everything that a man could desire. As in an American commercial from the 1960s, this housewife and mother embodies the stereotype of the ideal woman. But we soon realize that she is incredibly frustrated, like many Lebanese women who abandon their true personalities to conform to an image that is expected of them. There is a genuine attraction between this woman and Rima. At the end of the film, after a personal journey, she makes a gesture that may seem perfectly banal: she cuts her long black hair. As if to free herself of a burden. Siham Fatmeh Safa is a Shia Muslim who was married for 13 years and who now lives alone. She gives off the air of mystery that I needed for the character. And Lili, who plays Rose’s older sister? Lili is a godsend! In creating this character, I took my inspiration from a woman whose story I heard. When she was a young girl, she fell in love with a French officer who, when he left Lebanon, wrote to her every day, but his letters were intercepted by her family. When she found out, it was too late. Since then, she has been looking for those letters everything were... Lili is a slightly crazy spinster who picks up everything that bears a resemblance to paper. Lili must be about 85. I had almost given up all hope of finding her when I spotted her on the street one Good Friday. Right away, I knew she was the Lili I had been dreaming of. She is a Christian who only speaks Arabic and, in real life, she is both very calm and very funny..

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