Caramel 2018 

One of the EON friend (a woman with a Lebanese background)  suggested we viewed Labaki’s Caramel   as ‘feel good’ film for the end of year. 

Given my background (see post 2012 ) I was very surprised by the animated discussion. 

I had showed the film twice before (2012 and 2016) ) to different friends groups. The diverging reactions this time echoed the previous ones but were still more marked : “Depressing, Feminist – Funny, Boring”. While some people looked at the film as portraying women’s repressed life in Beirut, others saw it as a positive representation of women solidarity and friendship across faith cultures.  The discussion focused mainly on the young women. There were some comments about the representation of the dementing old woman. On the whole certain scenes were picked up and discussed but other significant ones  did not get any attention. 

 (see previous posts)