Two different fronts in battle for Afghanistan
Documentary captures friendship of wounded soldier and entrepreneur he inspired
It’s the story of two best friends and their very different approaches to the same fight.
Perfume War connects the dots between the moment in 2006 when a Canadian soldier took an axe to the head in Kandahar province and a later moment when his best friend bought a couple thousands of dollars’ worth of orange blossom oil from an Afghan farmer on her credit card.
For years, both Trevor Greene and Barb Stegemann have made headlines across Canada for seemingly separate reasons. Greene miracu- lously survived having that blade slammed into his skull while serving in the Canadian Forces, and then healed far beyond anyone’s expectations.
Stegemann launched 7 Virtues, a company that buys essential oils from conflict zones and uses them to make perfume in Canada.
A former journalist, Greene is already the subject of a biographical documentary, Peace Warrior, while Stegemann got her start on CBC’s Dragons’ Den after penning a book that gave her company its name.
“A lot of people don’t know that he’s the soldier that inspired me,” Stegemann said of Greene in an interview with the Star. “And a lot of people don’t know that a lot of his healing was me carrying on his mission, because a soldier never wants to leave his mission unfinished.”
She said her friend wanted to protect and empower the people of Afghanistan, so as soon as he was no longer in a position to actively do that, she jumped in to help on his behalf. Her approach, however, was a bit different.
In a Maclean’s article written by Greene last year, he credited “Abdul’s axe” as the reason Stegemann started making perfume.
“She has empowered thousands of women in conflict zones who would otherwise be hopelessly struggling to provide for their children,” he wrote.
Having read much about Greene’s recovery and the launch of Stegemann’s perfume business, Perfume War’s director Michael Melski (who went to King’s College with both of them) wanted to tie together years of news articles by giving both his subjects a place to tell their stories in their own words.
Hoping to document an “epic platonic friendship that led to personal transformation and into global transformation,” Melski said he’s tried to show audiences who Greene and Stegemann are as people and together as friends.
Stegemann thinks the film, which got off the ground with a near$25,000 boost from a Kickstarter campaign she launched in 2015, helped provide audiences with helpful context.
As a self-described sometimes cynical filmmaker, Melski has been humbled by the reactions to the story he’d seen so far. Launched at Halifax’s Atlantic Film Festival last fall, the film has since appeared at several other North American festivals and Melski has heard viewers state that it has profoundly changed the way they think about the world.
He said its felt good to offer a new take on protecting and advancing peace: “Just through two people who are in their own personal way going out there and doing things that are lights in the darkness,” he said.
Perfume War is set to play at the Cineplex Yonge Dundas and other Cineplex theatres across Canada from Friday to Thursday.
Director Michael Melski said he tried to show who Trevor Greene, a soldier, and Barb Stegemann, an entrepreneur, are as people