Movie Screening: “Be Like Others” 19th of April

The Event Committee of the Society of International Affairs in Gothenburg in co-operation with Cinema Politica welcomes you to the screening of the documentary ‘BE LIKE OTHERS’, directed by Tanaz Eshaghian.

An intimate and unflinching look at life in Iran, seen through the lens of those living at its fringes, ‘BE LIKE OTHERS’ is a provocative look at a generation of young men choosing to undergo sex change surgery. Sex-change operations are legal in the Islamic Republic of Iran while homosexuality is still punishable by death. 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 allowedto 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.

‘BE LIKE OTHERS’ was nominated at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival in the “Grand Jury Prize” category and was part of the Official Selection. The documentary was also screened at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won three Teddy Awards: the ‘Amnesty International Film Prize – Special Mention’, ‘Reader Jury of the Siegessäule’ and the ‘Jury Award’. The documentary won the ‘Best Documentary’ awards at the 2008 Inside Out Toronto Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival.

The screening is free and open to everyone.

The trailer can be found here: https://www.cinemapolitica.org/film/be-others