Ivy is a beautician. She runs her own business and is highly successful. Year in, year out, she makes the rich (mostly Jewish) 'madams' in Johannesburg look and feel great.

She has had a solid and regular client base for years. She knows and shares with them the most intimate details of their lives. She laughs with them and cries with them. She gossips with them, cares about them, and gives them sound advice. She even puts them into their car and starts the engine so that their manicured nails don't get scuffed. To her clients, she is the best therapist around: rejuvenating the body and spirit.

Ivy started her highly successful career when it was illegal for black women in South Africa to work as beauticians for this sector of society. But Ivy is no sounding board. Being one of Ivy's clients is taking on Ivy herself: her views, her knowledge, her life.

Over the years she has broken down both racial and social boundaries, allowing wealthy women a rare and real insight into her life in the underprivileged community of Alexandria township. Ivy's a strong, realistic woman of Africa, whose outlook is resolutely positive. She has her demons – and her own way of breaking the shackles of her past.

Hot Wax is an intimate, heart-warming documentary, where bridges are crossed and deep friendships forged under the guise of a superficial quest for beauty.


Berlin Forum, African, Asian & Latin American Festival - Milan, Nyon (SA Focus), Hot Docs