`KABUL' A STYLISH DOCUMENTARY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

True to its title, ``The Beauty Academy of Kabul'' documents the efforts of some American and British hairdressers to bring women in the shattered Afghan capital up to speed on the latest cosmetology techniques.

It's a light and lively fly-on-the-wall piece that is occasionally aware of its own absurdity; one loudmouthed New York instructor's revolution-through-makeup battle cry - ``How else do you expect Afghanistan to progress?'' - is played for the laughs it deserves. But director Liz Mermin for the most part accepts the Westerners' vaguely New Age-y zeal about the undoubted importance of their beauty mission.

What's good about the film is its many interviews with local women who, when such business was banned by the religious fanatics, continued to set hair in clandestine home salons. They are proud of their defiance, and now cheerfully recount harrowing tales of Taliban coercion they suffered and survived. I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that most of the Kabul ladies have lovelier hair than their self-appointed tutors do, but that's the case.

What's odd is, except for the few Afghan expatriates who return to teach their sisters curling and gel tricks, the instructors' backgrounds are not addressed. I'd rather hear the locals' stories anyway, but something more than evangelizing glamour surely drove some of these gals into this inhospitable corner of the world.

There is, naturally, some comic culture-clashing. The teachers have to be told not to get bossy with the workmen building their salon, Afghan women adorably fail to get their heads around the concept of marrying for love, and, of course, the vital shipment of mannequin training heads gets lost.

Oh, and everywhere outside the salon/school oasis: men with guns. As sweetly uplifting as ``Beauty Academy of Kabul'' is, it rarely lets us forget that severe oppression of an entire gender is still only a firefight away.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

THE BEAUTY ACADEMY OF KABUL - Three stars

(Not rated)

Director: Liz Mermin.

Running time: 1 hr. 14 min.

Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

In a nutshell: This documentary about some Western women who open a hairdressing school in the post-Taliban Afghan capital is warmhearted and kind of superficial - but it's a movie about cosmetology, so why wouldn't it be? In English and Dari with English subtitles.

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Photo:

Women learn hairdressing in ``The Beauty Academy of Kabul.''