Quite a gut wrenching situation… I would call it a story except that it is not. Its reality in everyday Iran and something that is very discomforting at best. Be Like Others is a short film/documentary that explores the life behind closed curtains of the mostly youngish gay men in Iran and the lengths they go to have an operation to be with another man. It really is an intimate and unflinching look at life in Iran. It is thoroughly disturbing and sad in many ways, you come out pensive and have a lot of respect for your own life as it stands. Its really nice to see someone dared to make the effort to bring this out on film for the world to see.
Below in the synopsis of the movie documentary, visit the site and watch some of the trailers, if you get a chance and are not easily put off by strong adult themes. It isn’t your average movie. It is gut wrenching in more ways than I can think of. Be Like Others was the Official Selection of 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Teddy Award for 2008 Berlin Film Festival, Firresch Prize for 2008 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
After coming back home I decided to google and found some interesting YouTube links to clips of gay life in Iran. It confirms the previous belief… some gays choose to call themselves transexuals and have the sex change operation only to be with men. Watch this to the end and you will know what I mean. Very grim life!
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country with strict social mores and traditional values, sex-change operations are legal. Over twenty years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) making sex change permissible for “diagnosed transsexuals.” Yet homosexuality is still punishable by death. With Iran’s international arms negotiations dominating news headlines worldwide, a very private kind of drama is unfolding behind the scenes. Highly feminine and attracted to members of the same sex, yet forced to live in secret for fear of retribution, a generation of young Iranian men are adopting an identity legally allowed to them—transsexual. In pursuit of what one man calls simply, “a decent life,” they flock to the country’s best-established gender reassignment surgeon, Dr. Bahram Mir Jalali, and are counseled by 24-year-old Vida, a post-op woman who claims to be “reborn” but warns of dangers that still await. 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.
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And this is still happening in 2008??? Sad!!