In her gorgeous and love-affirming feature feature debut Nadine Labaki finds gold in the hot goo used to strip body hair. Set in and around a Beirut beauty salon, Caramel stirs together the smooth and the crunchy of five women’s lives. Nisrine is a spirited bombshell on the verge of marrying a conservative Muslim – but she is no longer a virgin. Jamale, an aging actress, goes to absurd lengths to hold back time. Rima suppresses her attraction to other women, until her own dream girl walks through the door. Seamstress Rose deflects the attention of a gentleman suitor to care for her older sister. And Layale, the owner of the salon, carries on a hopeless – but very satisfying – affair with a married man. Labaki herself plays Layale, leading an ensemble cast that generates enormous warmth and wit onscreen. As director, Labaki gives the film a rich visual field, shooting the salon with a touch of Wong Kar-wai in her layered, burnished compositions. There is a new kind of film coming from Lebanon, one that looks past war and politics to the eternal truths of love and passion.