The Beauty Academy of Kabul

A highly entertaining take on a very unlikely subject. Salon writes, "whatever you go into it thinking, you're likely to come out of it thinking something else." The Beauty Academy of Kabul documents a group of American and British beauticians (some of them Afghan emigres) determined to launch a professional-grade hair salon in Kabul, Afghanistan. Veering between finding the proposition ludicrous or strangely inspirational, the film finds less ambiguity in the response of local Afghan women, who embrace the beauty school as an oasis of refinement and joy, not to mention economic opportunity. (74 mins., 35mm)