Between The Lines: India's Third Gender

A brilliant and beautifully shot documentary about the lives of three 'hijras': biological men who dress as women but class themselves as neither gender.

Set against the backdrop of bustling Bombay, Between the Lines follows photographer Anita Khemka as she captures the life of the eunuchs of India - the Hijras - living as outcasts on the edge of society. The existence of the Hijras is laced with juxtaposition: they don’t officially exist, they are infertile yet in Hindu they have ‘a talent to spread fertility’, and although they have no apparent sexual organs, their everyday lives are full of eroticism. Khemka pesters each Hijra about their reasons for choosing or not choosing to be castrated, and discovers answers to questions PC Americans wouldn’t dare ask.

"… documentation of the highest order" Copenhagen Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2007

“One of the best films you'll ever see about the subcontinent's intriguing, perplexing culture in respect to human sexuality…” ebar.com

Director Thomas Wartmann
Germany, 2005, 95 mins