If Lebanese film maker Nadine Labaki knows the answer to a question she doesn't hesitate or hold back.
Where many directors struggle to pinpoint the exact moment of inspiration for a film, Labaki instead, is in her element.
"It's a colour, a thought, a person," said the Lebanese director. "It happens quickly usually and I know instantly what I have to do."
She's clear, direct, focused and writes from the heart. But Labaki will never forget what she calls "the light bulb minute" for her latest film, Where Do We Go Now?, for very different reasons.
"I had just discovered I was pregnant," she said. "Unfortunately for this film it was when people from two different political and religious views took weapons again and went down to the street and started killing people. They had succeeded in living years in peace. They lived in the same neighbourhood, went to the same grocery shop, bought the same bread, breathed the same air. And because of political climate change they took weapons and started fighting. I think because of the absurdity you cannot help but express yourself. It started with the story of a mother who wanted to do everything she could to stop her son taking a weapon."
Where Do We Go Now? is a cross between a serious narrative and a comedy set in war-torn Lebanon.
The film picked up the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival beating two films starring George Clooney.
Voted on by festival audiences, the award has typically been regarded as the one which paves the way for Oscar success.
"People's reaction has been so overwhelming. I feel great. So happy," she said ahead of the red carpet screening of her film at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.
"This is why I make films, for them to be seen and to be appreciated by the biggest number of people. The intention of what I wanted to do and say is making its way around the world."
Last year's fans' pick at Toronto, The King's Speech, went on to take four Oscars, including best film, and the 2008 people's choice winner, Slumdog Millionaire, took best film and seven other Oscars.
The film follows Lebanese-Canadian director-actor Labaki's first feature Caramel, a love story set in a Beirut beauty salon, which was Lebanon's entry for the 2007 best foreign language film Oscar.
more ambitious
With such high expectations, Labaki says topping each film is always a challenge. "It's something between you and yourself because people appreciate everything. People don't see the flaws you see as a director. The small details which are not very good, or things that you would have done differently.
"This subject is bigger, it's more ambitious. It has a bigger impact on people. In Caramel people are touched by it. Here they are more shaken. It makes people think about their lives, their situation. That was the trigger of this film."
Although set in an unnamed village in Lebanon, the film was always meant to carry a much broader message than problems in the country.
"The tensions are everywhere. I feel them everywhere. It's between people in the metro and the bus. It's between neighbours who live together for years and you don't even know what he looks like. If he's a man or woman. Young or old. These tensions, the fears, the animosity towards the other is everywhere.
"Of course in this film we talk about Christians and Muslims because we needed to symbolise in some way. We could have created two new religions. This war could have happened between two families or brothers. It's everywhere and it needs to stop."
With looks like Nadine Labaki's, film and fashion are a natural fit it seems. The Lebanese actress and director was recently named the Intropia Woman for autumn-winter 2011 by cult Spanish label Hoss Intropia. Labaki, who has directed many award-winning TV commericials before acting and directing her critically acclaimed films, is as international as it gets, says the brand.
"An exotic and natural beauty, Nadine embodies a successful and inspirational woman rooted in the brand's identity. She was chosen to be the Brand Ambassador for Hoss Intropia in the Middle East for her beauty, style, individuality and for our love of her movies that deal with the power of women in the society today," the label said in a statement.
