Beauty Academy of Kabul

Reviewer: Erin Donovan
Rating (out of 5): ****

In a recent interview Yves Béhar, chief designer on the $100 laptop project, told Wired magazine, "There's a criticism that comes up. I think it's the stupidest argument: Send kids food, send them water." These critics, he says, imagine all the developing world to be a famine-stricken village in Africa. "This is the typical ignorance of the West. There are different conditions in different places," he says. "And there are a lot of places where kids are not starving, where kids want to learn more than anything else."

The Beauty Academy of Kabul documents a team of British and American women from an NGO called Beauty Without Borders setting up the first teaching salon in Kabul since the 70s. It seems a bit deranged at first - are people really worrying about split ends with bombs still falling on their city? As it turns out, even during the oppressive rule of the Taliban women were running secret salons out of their homes and apparently making more money than any deputy minister of their Parliament.

It really doesn't look so different from a start-up here in the States: workmen show up late (and resent taking instructions from women), shipments of inventory are repeatedly delayed (signs hang up in the warehouse reading 'Is Your Weapon Unloaded?'), the opening day looms and no one is sure whether there is even interest in their enterprise (thousands turn out for the 25 spots in the program) all among the shelled remains of a former metropolis.

Director Liz Mermin (On Hostile Ground), a former anthropologist, has a keen eye for the details that build an immediate sense of intimacy for the viewer with the teachers and students of the school. There are several galling moments of ugly American-ism (one teacher yells at the students that they are 'in a rut' for not wearing make up every day, another woman blithely asks if there is 'verbal abuse' at home that causes the women to be so obedient to their husbands, a Manhattan woman casually refers to Kabul as 'hell') which the Afghan women, having survived a Soviet invasion, three military coups, the Taliban and America's carpet-bombing accept with a polite bemusement.

The film is fascinating enough but the DVD is nearly worth renting solely for the deleted interview with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (neither behaving devilishly nor wearing Prada) who took up the Beauty Without Borders cause; personally donating $25,000 and securing donations from cosmetic industry mainstays Frederick Fekkai, Paul Mitchell, MAC Cosmetics, Revlon, L'Oreal and Clairol.

Other extras include an additional hour of deleted scenes and a Q&A with Mermin.

See also: Osama, Boys of Baraka, Afghan Stories, Afghanistan Unveiled (only through PBS).