Be Like Others

Documentary 

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, a country with strict social and traditional values, sex-change operations are legal, 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, numerous young Iranian men are adopting an identity legally allowed to them - transsexual. 

In pursuit of what one such person calls simply ‘a decent life’, they flock to the country’s best-established gender reassignment surgeon, Dr. Bahram Mir-Jalali, and are counselled by the 24-year-old Vida, a post-op woman who claims to be ‘reborn’ and warns of dangers for those who identify as homosexuals. 

Iranian-American filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian accompanies several young Iranians as they contemplate and prepare for their transformations, then follows them in and out of surgery. Intimate and unflinching, Be Like Others is a fascinating look at those on the fringes of Iranian life - young people looking for acceptance through radical means. 

Winner Teddy Jury Award, Berlin International Film Festival 2008
Official Selection Sundance Film Festival 2008 

Director Tanaz Eshaghian
Canada / Iran / USA, 2008, 74mins 

Farsi with subtitles