This was still another great film I was treated to by the organizers of this film festival. It was charming to realize women whom came to the USA as immigrants leaving behind the Taliban never lost their love of their homeland. In expressing that love they returned as soon as reasonably possible to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. They brought with them the greatest gift they could to their piers. That gift would be the full expression of woman, in a context of female sexuality, hence, 'the beauty parlor experience.'
The most indomitable mentor of the group lived completely in denial of the war, fighting and daily danger of her own life. Her focus was on the beauty academy, it's participants and the 'product' that would carry with it great hopes of the liberation of Afghanistan women. The product was not a salable commodity. It was not hair spray or hair condition, but, the graduates of the academy itself. She was magnificent and none of the academy's mentor/instructors ever settled for less than perfection of it's graduates.
It was a perilous journey with the women that would be the students. They mounted incredible odds to become beauty academy graduates. They found time somewhere in households without modern day conveniences to attend classes and learn a skill. This by the way is not uncommon to the experience of American women even with modern day conveniences. The overwhelming role of 'Super woman/Super mom' to maintain relationships, families, household responsibilities and love of children while seeking self expression and many times economic security in pursuit of career all at the same time, is something easily common place to both sides of this Afghan/American accomplishment.
This film as well leaves the viewer wondering, although not necessarily as a sequel, to the success of the graduates and the continued career choices of it's mentors/instructors. Considering today in Afghanistan there is a resurgence of Taliban now that the Brits and NATO have taken over the demise of al Qaeda following the London bombings, I was left with concern for those in the film rather than sustained joy. At the end of this film I felt a paradox and never before that moment had I realized how profoundly the current administration and legislature in DC had failed these people. At the time this film was made there was profound hope that was supposed to translate a permanence of change that obviously was not obtained due to the derailment of the American military to Iraq. We have lost far more than a chance to end al Qaeda in Afghanistan, we may have very well lost the hopes the Afghanistan people placed in the USA at the beginnings of the invasion.
