Two pairs of tickets for a lovely movie

Dir Nadine Labaki
Synopsis

Nadine Labaki's debut movie is an absolute cracker with forbidden love, repressed sexuality, refusal to age gracefully and duty versus desire.

What are we missing here? Elves maybe, magic?

Well exactly. This is no fantasy epic but a real movie about five Lebanese women and covers – or rather swamps – all the emotional bases.

There's lesbian leanings, surgically reinstated virginity, OAP dating and infidelity, in a film which looks at current situations in a society, and a country, split between Western liberties and Eastern traditions.

The majority of the female characters are non-professional actresses and bring a warmth to the movie which it might otherwise have lacked. Because this isn't a heavy slog of a film, but full of sensuousness and humour. Given the main location for the action it could be nothing else. The setting is a Beirut hairdressers’ where, between treatments, the stylists and clients exchange frank conversation about their loves and lives.