Cityscape At Sunrise, Kabul, Afghanistan
Victor, Stephane
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Film: The Beauty Academy of Kabul [NR] 74 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $9.50
Where Viewed: Landmark Varsity Theatre, Seattle, WA
When 1st Seen: 1 May 2006
Time: 7:15 p.m.
Review Dedicated to: Dr. Kare L. of Oslo, Norway
Given that the USA media focus for the past few years has been nearly exclusively on Iraq, we in the USA tend to forget the military exercise in Afghanistan that brought the Taliban out of power and actually gave some hope to a people that had been living under a regime that, as one of the women in The Beauty Academy of Kabul says, “Put us back 100 years.” My sense is that the historical understanding of the history of Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan is pretty rusty in the minds of most USA citizens. Suffice it to say that a long series of moves that seemed like a good idea at the time eventually made the conditions in Afghanistan ripe for the rise of an ultra-conservative, Islamic fundamentalist regime to take over the country and run roughshod over everything that used to be the Afghani culture. For one thing, women were stripped of virtually all rights. So, regardless of whether the US was justified in the attack on Afghanistan, one thing is certain, the ousting of the Taliban from power was something that the world should have managed to accomplish long before. Well, now it has been a few years, and it is interesting to see exactly what is going on in the country since the fall of the Taliban. Hence, Beauty without Borders and four hair stylists from the USA using funds donated by organizations involved in the beautification industry, leave the comforts of home to go and set up a beauty school in Kabul. The very notion of such an excursion on the one hand is so ludicrous as to beg mockery. Of all the things Afghanis might need at this point in time, is a beauty school really one of them? Well, it turns out that, yes, yes they do. In fact, they have so many student applicants they have to conduct a lottery to determine which 20 students will get to be in the first class—they are limited by space and the number of mannequin heads. Why would this be so essential? For one thing, because the women were so utterly repressed, and mind you that pre-Taliban days, women of Afghanistan were doctors and lawyers and teachers and fashion models. Kabul was a very cosmopolitan city of around 4 million people. Well, the Taliban virtually eliminated the educational opportunities for women. Some continued to cut and style hair secretly in their homes, but it was considered outside the law for women to travel and get their hair done or to wear make up except in preparation for their wedding. So, when the women learn of the new beauty school, they are ecstatic. We tend to forget the humanizing impact of getting something as simple as a haircut in the full gamut of things to worry about. But, really, it is the small things, the simple pleasures, that can make all of the difference in the world. Again, one of the American stylists in the film says, “Here we are changing Afghanistan one woman at a time.” Ironically, the skills the women learn in the school, have immediate impact on some of their lives as they suddenly find themselves earning more money than their husbands.
So, for both big and small reasons, opening this school was a very good idea and clearly only the tip of the iceberg. I thought the plan was well-executed and the outcome, the evening graduation ceremony held at the Turkish restaurant nearby, was tear-jerking at times. To watch these women whose lives had just a few years ago been little more than tortuous, stand up to receive their awards was beautifully moving.
"Of all the things Afghanis might need at this point in time, is a beauty school really one of them? Well, it turns out that, yes, yes they do."
The story of the Beauty Academy of Kabul is an inspirational one. Unfortunately, I have to admit that it did not adapt to film quite as well as one might have hoped. Some of the American women come off positively as the Ugly American who really does not get any other culture. While they may hope for greater female empowerment and shudder at the way the Afghani women are treated, they need not look across the ocean for a nation with countless areas of institutionalized gender bias against women about which I have written extensively time and again in this blog. When one goes to help and work in another culture, it is the duty of the person to consider the values of the culture not just blaze in with platitudes and preconceptions of what certain people are and are not supposed to be and do. My feeling is that these women were not really as boisterous and ‘bad’ as they may have seemed on film. My feeling is that the editors clipped the parts they felt would add the most to story. Meanwhile, as potent as some elements of the story are, others simply drag on. Do we really need four and a half minutes on the pursuit of the missing mannequin heads? I went in thinking this 74-minute movie would fly by, and twice I had to jolt myself back to consciousness. Well, I am being overly harsh on the director, Liz Mermin. This was, after all, a documentary not a blockbuster. Since lately it has seemed important to many fans of various genres to give credit within the genre, then in comparing this against other documentaries, I’d have to say this one was good, but not great. That is not a review of the effort to set the academy up nor its work—as both the effort and the results have been most noble. Better editing, directing, and filming of the documentary, might have sharpened this one a bit for the viewing audience.
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