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In a cinema industry traditionally dominated by the theme of war, "Caramel", a film by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, shies away from conflict and instead brings to light social dilemmas faced by Lebanese women. "Caramel", or "Sukkar Banat" as the movie is titled in Arabic, revolves around the lives of five Lebanese women, each burdened with their own social and moral problems. This is Labaki's first feature-length movie and was shown during the Cannes Film Festival in May. Most Lebanese films have tended to tackle themes revolving around the 1975-1990 civil war that destroyed much of the country's social fabric -- its social repercussions, sectarianism and post-war malaise. Labaki has chosen to deviate from this trend. "It's only natural that I don't speak about war in the film. I am someone who wants to forget about war. I want to show a new image of Lebanon. Lebanon is not just burning buildings and people crying on the side of the road. This is the first thing anyone, especially a foreigner, thinks about when you mention Lebanon or Beirut. But for me, Lebanon is also about other things. We are ordinary people, we live experiences that have nothing to do with the war, we live love stories and other things which have nothing to do with war," Labaki told Reuters television in Beirut. The women face social issues that are quintessential in today's Lebanon, but which society marks as taboo, such as sex before marriage, lesbianism and drugs. The main setting is a beauty...