Momentum Pictures has taken UK rights to Nadine Labaki's Caramel.

The film was one of the hits of Cannes ' Directors Fortnight. Labaki's debut feature is about five different Lebanese women who come together in a Beirut beauty salon.

Louis Tisne, Momentum's acquisitions manager, negotiated the deal with Roissy Film's Chairman and CEO Raphael Berdugo.

Anne Dominique Toussaint produced Caramel.

Richard Napper, Momentum Pictures Managing Director Europe, said: 'We are very excited with this acquisition and strongly feel that Nadine Labaki is a fresh new voice in world cinema.'

Nadine Labaki shot Caramel in Beirut in late spring 2006, when the troubled city was in buoyantmood following the departure of the Syrian army.

'The timing was sofortuitous, something of a miracle,' says producer Toussaint. A week after the wrap party, Israeli bombers were overhead.With the airport besieged, it was September before Labaki could beginpost-production in Paris.

The title refers both to theMiddle Eastern art of hair removal using a sugary paste, and 'the ideaof sweet and salt, sugary and sour,' says Labaki.

Topics