Documentary filmmaker Mehrdad Oskouei considers the epidemic of nose jobs in contemporary Iran, the world leader in rhinoplasty with an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 operations each year. In a country that discourages personal expression and disdains Western culture, young Iranians eagerly change their noses to model images in European and American fashion magazines. With a light touch, Oskouei listens to patients and surgeons comment on this enigmatic phenomenon.

If you've seen the movie Burn After Reading, which was directed by the Coen brothers, then you've seen how the desire for plastic surgery can severely aggravate one's mental condition. The main character had to triumph over many obstacles and she clumsily sacrificed Brad Pitt's character in order to obtain funds for her aesthetic surgeries. She needed to find the money herself because insurance wouldn't cover the "unnecessary" surgeries.

Yet, I heard that in other countries, such as Brazil, plastic surgery is deemed coverable because different levels of beauty elicit discrimination. Brazilians argue: Why should beauty give someone the upper hand in the workplace or otherwise? Plastic surgery supposedly evens out the beauty playing field.

But I had never heard that Iranians partake in the most plastic surgeries per capita of any one in the world. Find out why by watching Nose, Iranian Style on the Sundance Channel Saturday, Jan. 10 at 6am or Sunday, Jan. 25 at 6:15am.