Sukkar Banat

The movie, “Sukkar Banat”, or Caramel, depicts the lives of several Lebanese women, from different backgrounds. The audience gets to know these characters through scenes shot in a beauty salon, a symbol of the society of the Lebanese capital Beirut. In the year 2007, the movie was nominated under the Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards.

What one first notices is that the women, who are the main characters of the movie, are independent rather than traditional. I personally found the movie to be universal, unlike many others produced in Arab countries focusing on the historical aspects of the Middle East. However, Beirut is one of the most modern and cosmopolitan cities in the Arab World.

Each of the women’s stories is interesting and somewhat controversial. Nisrine, for example, is a Muslim woman who is engaged to be married. She fears the consequences that could occur if her future husband finds out that she is not a virgin. Rima, on the other hand, finds herself to be attracted to other women, and faces issues admitting her homosexuality in a conservative society. Layale, the owner of the beauty salon named Sibelle, finds herself attracted to a married man and has an affair with him, failing to control her feelings towards him. Jamale is an actress who faces a self-conflict in dealing with her aging. The movie thus transmits a message that the basic general understanding is that society believes that only women who are dependent on others will have fruitful futures. The male characters of the movies are placed in the sidelines, and gender inequality is highlighted throughout.

The movie, as a whole, delves into the pressures faced in societies such as the Lebanese one. The soundtrack to the film was also exceptional, in the sense that the director’s usage of the pop genre implies a crossing between modern views and traditional values. The film is critical of the culture’s gender inequality, but respectful of the cultural values upheld simultaneously.