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04/23/09
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The Beauty Academy of Kabul (2006)
87 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 53
Fresh: 46
Rotten:7
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Consensus: There's nothing frivolous about beauty school when hearing about the individual lives of these women in Afghanistan, and the contrast between them and the idealistic beauticians from America.
Rated: Not Rated
Genre: Education/General Interest
Theatrical Release:Mar 24, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: After the Taleban's fall, a group of American beauticians take their curling irons to Afghanistan to open the country's first beauty school. --© BBC Films
Director: Liz Mermin
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Reviews for The Beauty Academy of Kabul
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08/07/08
Captures the essence of Americans' sense of empowerment and innate goodness -- and our cultural myopia.
03/14/07
It is that lack of small-minded judgment which distinguishes The Beauty Academy of Kabul and which makes it thoughtful, yet so much fun to watch.
03/01/07
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01/16/07
A skin deep in beauty documentary with hairdressers as healers.
12/24/06
Most of the students had suffered or witnessed horrific abuses and crimes under the Taliban, yet the film shows two fatuous U.S. instructors who clearly missed the sensitivity training.
12/15/06
Top Critica spiny, puzzling and highly entertaining film, and whatever you go into it thinking, you're likely to come out thinking something else.
12/15/06
Top CriticA few of the academy’s students receive personal profiles, and their resilience after years of war and oppression is remarkable. If ever that “triumph of the human spirit” cliché could be applied to a group of people, this is it.
12/08/06
The teachers have moxie. The students have courage. Mermin's warm, funny, beautiful and deeply humane documentary certainly honors the latter.
09/15/06
Any film that raises this many interesting questions is worth seeing, though Beauty Academy never goes quite deep enough to become essential.
07/14/06
Top CriticIt rather eloquently makes the case that individuals who have confidence and self-worth can build a country with confidence and self-worth.
06/30/06
This movie shows us a small bit of daily life as lived by real people. For that alone, we should be grateful.
06/22/06
Top CriticUgly Americans try to teach Afghans to be pretty.
06/22/06
Yes, (Mid)west is (Mid)west and (Mid)east is (Mid)east, but the twain do meet -- sort of -- in this fascinating, unassuming little film.
06/15/06
Top CriticIt's a demonstration of the ancient proverb: Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today, but teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.
06/03/06
The interaction between the self-absorbed, oblivious hairdressers and their quiet, stubborn, traditional students runs from the hilarious to the heartbreaking.
06/02/06
Without editorializing, Mermin raises fascinating questions about the cultural impact of globalization, the allure of the West, and the troubled history of an ancient land.
05/19/06
Top CriticThat the film is even this watchable has to do more with the subjects themselves.
05/19/06
Director Liz Mermin subtly captures both sides of a cultural divide.
05/19/06
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