Be Like Others

If you get the chance, definitely check out a new documentary, Be Like Others, that's currently on the festival circuit and will hopefully/most likely be shown on PBS.

The film chronicles the stories of several male to female transsexuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country that permits sex change operations but punishes homosexuality with death. As a Muslim cleric explains it, being born into the wrong body and having an operation to fix this predicament is not explicitly prohibited in the Koran, therefore it's allowed. Homosexuality, on the other hand, is condemned and is therefore anti-religious and unlawful.

While some of the transsexuals who appear in the film are probably correctly "diagnosed," it's clear - though presented subtly - that many who undergo this emotionally and physically painful operation are actually gay men who feel that their existence is impossible without the surgery.

With lingering shots on disconsolate and resigned faces of the men, their families and partners who are sucked into this drama, the film does a beautiful job of showing the dilemmas rather than just telling us about them.