Be Like Others - Trans in Iran
Poslato: 30 Mar 2009, 07:09
Naleteh slučajno na ovaj film...
Although homosexual relationships are illegal (punishable by death) in Iran, sex "reassignment" operations are permitted. In 1983, spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini passed a fatwa allowing sex-change operations as a cure for "diagnosed transsexuals".Be Like Others shows the experiences of male and female patients at Dr. Bahram Mir-Jalali's Mirdamad Surgical Centre, a sex-reassignment clinic in Tehran. One of them is Ali Askar, a 24 year-old man who faces harassment from other men due to his feminine appearance and behaviour. He does not want to become a woman but sees no other options for him in Iranian society. He decides to go ahead with the surgery despite death threats from his father and finds support from Vida, a post-operative transsexual he meets at the clinic. By the end of the film, Ali has become a woman named Negar. She has been disowned by her family, experienced depression and has had to work as a prostitute. 20 year-old Anoosh is another young man who has been ostracised due to his femininity. His boyfriend feels more comfortable when Anoosh dresses as a woman, and in contrast to Ali, Anoosh's mother is supportive of his desire to change sex. The end of the film shows Anoosh — now Anahita — happy and engaged to her boyfriend.
Throughout the film, the patients of the sex-reassignment clinic assert that they are not homosexual, seeing homosexuality as something that is shameful and immoral. Eshaghian's (the director) opinion is that this shame is the driving force behind so many Iranians deciding to change their sex. She says that identifying as transsexual rather than homosexual allows them to live free from harassment.
Iranian-American filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian accompanies several young men as they contemplate and prepare for their transformation, then follows them into and out of surgery. Intimate and unflinching, BE LIKE OTHERS is a fascinating look at those on the fringes of Iranian life—those looking for acceptance through the most radical of means.
Directed by Tanaz Eshaghian, 59 min.
English/Arabian soundtrack, with hardcoded English subtitles
TANAZ ESHAGHIAN, the director, was born in Iran and left with her mother at the age of six, when the Iran-Iraq war started. She grew up in New York city and graduated from Brown University with a BA in Art Semiotics in 1996. She started making her own films a few years later, documenting the Iranian experience in America and in Iran.
For more information and clips of the movie, go to the official sites:
http://www.belikeothers.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7259057.stm
Ako neko želi linkove za film,neka se javi...
Although homosexual relationships are illegal (punishable by death) in Iran, sex "reassignment" operations are permitted. In 1983, spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini passed a fatwa allowing sex-change operations as a cure for "diagnosed transsexuals".Be Like Others shows the experiences of male and female patients at Dr. Bahram Mir-Jalali's Mirdamad Surgical Centre, a sex-reassignment clinic in Tehran. One of them is Ali Askar, a 24 year-old man who faces harassment from other men due to his feminine appearance and behaviour. He does not want to become a woman but sees no other options for him in Iranian society. He decides to go ahead with the surgery despite death threats from his father and finds support from Vida, a post-operative transsexual he meets at the clinic. By the end of the film, Ali has become a woman named Negar. She has been disowned by her family, experienced depression and has had to work as a prostitute. 20 year-old Anoosh is another young man who has been ostracised due to his femininity. His boyfriend feels more comfortable when Anoosh dresses as a woman, and in contrast to Ali, Anoosh's mother is supportive of his desire to change sex. The end of the film shows Anoosh — now Anahita — happy and engaged to her boyfriend.
Throughout the film, the patients of the sex-reassignment clinic assert that they are not homosexual, seeing homosexuality as something that is shameful and immoral. Eshaghian's (the director) opinion is that this shame is the driving force behind so many Iranians deciding to change their sex. She says that identifying as transsexual rather than homosexual allows them to live free from harassment.
Iranian-American filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian accompanies several young men as they contemplate and prepare for their transformation, then follows them into and out of surgery. Intimate and unflinching, BE LIKE OTHERS is a fascinating look at those on the fringes of Iranian life—those looking for acceptance through the most radical of means.
Directed by Tanaz Eshaghian, 59 min.
English/Arabian soundtrack, with hardcoded English subtitles
TANAZ ESHAGHIAN, the director, was born in Iran and left with her mother at the age of six, when the Iran-Iraq war started. She grew up in New York city and graduated from Brown University with a BA in Art Semiotics in 1996. She started making her own films a few years later, documenting the Iranian experience in America and in Iran.
For more information and clips of the movie, go to the official sites:
http://www.belikeothers.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7259057.stm
Ako neko želi linkove za film,neka se javi...
