Caramel

Conventional wisdom may link “Beirut” with the words “war-torn,” yet Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki’s delightful comic melodrama presents a friendly vision of the coastal resort seldom seen in the West. Labaki plays the gorgeous owner of a beauty parlor where Christians and Arabs intermingle, confide intimacies and confront personal secrets – which include adultery, hymen plastic surgery and Sapphic desire. (The title refers to the hot, sugary goop used in hair removal.) “A celebration of female sensuality … reassuring and delicious” – Salon .