This film is as much about empowerment for women as it is a slice of life in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
It is about several women from the United States and Britain who come to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban to teach women how to be beauticians.
One interesting aspect is the way in which the women , whom you might think are victims of a brutal regime , show how they continued to cut hair and apply makeup even under the Taliban. An ironic thing is that the burkas women were forced to wear actually covered up their hair and faces, so women could go out in public made up and without fear of being beaten.
Also, some of the women who cut hair secretly tell about how some of their customers were wives of prominent Taliban leaders.
And, the women who run beauty salons out of their homes find themselves making more money than their husbands.
The women , some from America, some from Europe and some returning to their native Afghanistan , develop a sisterhood while teaching and learning about cosmetics and hair styles.
One American is an obnoxious loudmouth, the kind of person who gives Americans a bad name abroad, who shows little understanding of Afghan culture.
The project was funded in part by beauty giants Clairol and "Vogue."
As many as 60 percent of Afghan women are widows, many with children to care for. Also, only 14 percent of women can read and write.
Therefore, learning to style hair and apply makeup can lift a woman from poverty and into self sufficiency. And, from the looks of it, the demand for beauticians is high in Kabul.
The mission of these women volunteers is to help shore up the bleak Afghan economy and promote freedom of expression and democracy.
"What I heard again and again was the fear that Afghanistan might be forgotten by the rest of the world as it has been in the past, used as a pawn in the bigger global game and then left to deal with the consequences on its own," Liz Mermin, the documentary's director, said online (www.beautyacademyofkabul.com). "And so I hope in its small way this film will play a part in bringing their reality closer to ours, in reminding us that we're all part of the same fragile world and that only chance has kept some of us while others endure incomprehensible violence, and in keeping us thinking , and arguing , about what we need to do to make that world a happier place for everyone."
