Farah Popcorn@farah_popcorn

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Caramel 2007 Rima and the salon scene

Rima's whole storyline in Caramel is the kind that sneaks up on you and then just stays. Nadine Labaki directed this 2007 film, and the setup is five women crossing paths at a Beirut salon called Si Belle. Around Rima there's wedding planning, some secret affairs, and everyone dealing with getting older. But she's the one I keep thinking about. Joanna Moukarzel plays her as this reserved tomboy who develops a quiet attraction to a glamorous female client, and the movie never makes it a big thing. It's all in the looks that last a second too long, that slow hair-washing moment in the back, the way she perks up the second this client walks in. Nobody in the film ever says the word homosexuality and yet the pull between them is unmistakable. In a movie full of chatter, confessions, and women having each other's backs, Rima barely says anything and it speaks volumes. What she holds in, plus how understated that salon scene is, shows a want she has no way to voice out loud. There's no big coming-out scene and nothing gets tied up neatly for her. It just sits in the quiet complexity of queer longing in a place where same-sex attraction is hard to admit openly. And because the film wraps all of it in warmth, humor, and ordinary closeness, her unspoken feelings land even harder. Caramel is a gentle yet significant work of Arab cinema, and it handles this attraction with a tenderness that finds beauty in what these characters can't put into words

1h

Farah Popcorn@farah_popcorn

Follow

Caramel 2007 Rima and the salon scene

Rima's whole storyline in Caramel is the kind that sneaks up on you and then just stays. Nadine Labaki directed this 2007 film, and the setup is five women crossing paths at a Beirut salon called Si Belle. Around Rima there's wedding planning, some secret affairs, and everyone dealing with getting older. But she's the one I keep thinking about. Joanna Moukarzel plays her as this reserved tomboy who develops a quiet attraction to a glamorous female client, and the movie never makes it a big thing. It's all in the looks that last a second too long, that slow hair-washing moment in the back, the way she perks up the second this client walks in. Nobody in the film ever says the word homosexuality and yet the pull between them is unmistakable. In a movie full of chatter, confessions, and women having each other's backs, Rima barely says anything and it speaks volumes. What she holds in, plus how understated that salon scene is, shows a want she has no way to voice out loud. There's no big coming-out scene and nothing gets tied up neatly for her. It just sits in the quiet complexity of queer longing in a place where same-sex attraction is hard to admit openly. And because the film wraps all of it in warmth, humor, and ordinary closeness, her unspoken feelings land even harder. Caramel is a gentle yet significant work of Arab cinema, and it handles this attraction with a tenderness that finds beauty in what these characters can't put into words

1h