It's easy to see why Nadine Labaki's cheery Lebanese collective bagged the audience award at last year's Toronto film festival. It's machine-tooled to raise smiles, swell hearts, and tickle tear ducts, yet it does so with sufficient cross-cultural cred you don't feel too yanked. Likewise, it's easy to see why it hasn't followed previous recepients of that award – Slumdog Millionaire, The King's Speech – to Oscar glory. The implication that if ladies were in charge, the Middle East would be peaceful, feels queasy.

Catherine Shoard

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