MOVIES
The United Kingdom, 2006, 16 min
Elhum Shakerifar
29.01.2010 19:25
‘Roya and Omid’ is an exploration of transsexuality in Iran. Bardia, a young female-to-male transsexual reflects on his childhood spent in the wrong body, when he was known as Roya (‘dream’ in Persian), but wished to be Omid (‘hope’ in Persian). His narrative is crossed the insightful comments of several male-to-female transsexuals in Iran – Donya, Handry, Leila and Shirin, who have to endure the daily scorn of society in their new roles as women.
Language of dialogues: Persian, English
Language of subtitles: English
Spain, 2008, 18 min
Konstantina Bousmpoura
29.01.2010 22:00
In October 2007, a group of artists of different nationalities set up atablao flamenco in front of Seville’s Cathedral. They claimed this public space as a place to exhibit and express their art. The audience’s applause transformed these artists into the flamenco group “Son de Afuera” (Not from here). This short documentary shows what it means to feel and create flamenco from “outside” in the context of Andalusian society.
Awards: First prize of Seville City XII Contest "Fronteras de Papel", March 2009; Best documentary, International Short Film Fest "Espartinas de Cine" of Aljarafe, Spain, October 2009
Language of dialogues: Español
Language of subtitles: English
Germany/India, 2009, 57 min
Helene Basu
30.01.2010 18:25

The Sufi shrine of Mira Datar in India is large pilgrimage centre specialising in healing possession madness/mental illness. Recently, it has also become a site of experimenting with new forms of community care in the mental health sector. The NGO „Altruist“ facilitates communication between the mental health department, shrine dignitaries, psychiatrists and patients suffering from diverse kinds of mental troubles who seek help from the saint. Under the heading of „Dava and Dua“ Altruists promotes psychiatric services at the shrine parallel to the cures of possession illnesses offered by ritual specialists. The film documents interactions between different actors at the shrine (patients-psychiatrists, psychiatrists-ritual specialists, patients-ritual specialists), listens to the stories of afflicted persons and presents diverse views on the presumed causes of mental illness as well on the benefit or non-benefit of medicine and/or ritual practices as perceived by patients and their relatives.
Language of dialogues: Hindi and Gujarati
Language of subtitles: English