'Caramel,' Nadine Labaki's Beruit-set comedy, has secured a spot in Cannes' Directors Fortnight sidebar.
"Caramel," a rare Beirut-set comedy, has secured a Cannes berth in the Directors Fortnight sidebar and sold to Gaul's Bac Distribution.
Pic will screen on the Croisette May 20, offering alternative entertainment to the main festival's 60th anniversary soiree.
A first feature by Nadine Labaki, known in her native Lebanon as a helmer of pop videos, "Caramel" wrapped just days before war broke out last year.
The film follows five Lebanese women of differing ages, religions, marital status and sexual orientations, as they go about their daily lives in Beirut. They use the "Caramel" of the title to wax their legs.
The film was produced by French indie producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint's Les Films des Tournelles, co-producer of the 2002 Cannes Critics Week breakout hit "Respiro," with coin from the Arab TV network ART, Lebanese indie distrib Sabbah Media and French international sales outfit Roissy Films. Pic has sold to Canadian distrib Seville.
Toussaint, who also produced the 2001 Directors FortnightAlbanian film "Slogans," told
Daily Variety: "People expect a film about Lebanon to be about bombs and war, but 'Caramel' is nothing like that; it is very lighthearted and funny."
Labaki worked on the script in a four-month sojourn at the Cannes' Cinefondation's screenwriter-helmer Paris residence in 2005.
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