Filmgoers expecting “My Big Fat Lebanese Waxing” are in for a much more nourishing treat: Writer, director and star Nadine Labaki possesses an astute instinct for restraint that makes “Caramel” smarter and more poignant than the average chick flick.

Which is not to say it doesn’t feature some fabulous chicks, starting with the gorgeous Labaki herself. She plays Layale, a stylist at the slightly shabby Si Belle salon, where she can be seen agonizing over an ill-advised affair as “Caramel” opens. Although Labaki could easily claim the spotlight for herself, in “Caramel” she graciously surrounds herself with a similarly appealing ensemble, including Yasmine Al Masri as a Muslim bride with a taboo secret, Gisele Aouad as an aging actress, Joanna Moukarzel as a tomboyish shop assistant and Sihame Haddad as a gentle seamstress whose lonely life with her addled sister is unexpectedly interrupted with the arrival of a handsome customer (Dimitri Stancofski).

Like “The Band’s Visit,” another new arrival from the Middle East this week, “Caramel” isn’t about politics per se. Rather, the tensions of the region define the warp and woof of the women’s world as they go about the rituals of life: gossiping, falling in and out of love, and even, no matter how advanced their years, growing up. Against the intimate backdrop of the hair salon, the women’s often constricting roles are shown in sharp relief. Like so many of their sisters around the world, they walk a narrow path of acceptability within a culture defined by men, who here are relegated to supporting but nonetheless crucial characters.

As Layale and her friends navigate both the society at large and the crowded Beirut streets, they find themselves confronting the most universal of human foibles and joys. And those, it turns out, transcend not just language and geography but the women’s own differences in age, religion and temperament. Like the confection of its title, “Caramel” is a subtle delicacy—sweet, but not too sticky —and one to be savored.

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