LIFE unfolds amid the familiar female rituals of a beauty salon for five Lebanese women.

The caramel of the title is a traditional sugaring recipe used in the salon as the five well-drawn main characters fill the plot out nicely with their different problems and triumphs.

There's a devoted carer, a wedding, an adulterous affair, a lesbian attraction... a huge slice of life in a tiny bit of Beirut.

Yes, it's as formulaic as any regular chick flick but the film's strength and sweetness is in underlining the similarities and differences of women in another culture. At times it all feels familiar and comfortable, and at others completely stifling and alien to Western women.