ROYA AND OMID
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
In Berlin, young self-employed workers live the alternative to a nine-to-five job – low rents and space for creative ideas are still available. A sewing café owner, a freelance journalist and two contemporary dancers give insights in theirs live styles and tell about their independent work. The protagonists are not only part of berlin´s creative class buut they also represent a part of well-educatted generation, who struggles between job insecurity and th wish of self-realization.
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.