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
Country Clubs or ‘Countries’ are gated communities on the outskirts of Argentina’s cities. Under the watchful eye of the private security firms hired to protect them, the clubs act as an oasis of calm for the Argentine rich. In such an environment people in the ‘Countries’ enjoy an apparently idyllic, safe existence surrounded by tennis courts, football fields, golf courses, polo pitches, shopping facilities and sometimes even private schools. Yet this film shows the dilemma and the inner-struggle of those who were born into a privileged position in a state that fails to provide social amenities, justice or peace for the majority of its people.
Desmond Love is a mature man and feels and behaves so. He likes to smoke his pipe and looks after his ducks. Men usually like talking about cars and Dessy´s favourite subject are his two shopping-trolleys. He parks them in front of his house nad likes to enhance them with various details. Desmond is one of the residents at Camphill Clanabogan, that means a person with mental handicap. In the scope of a therapy, he learns how to write on a computer. He writes his own story. This documentary amended with short cartoons let us glimp into Dessys´s memories – word after word, exactly as he remembered them. At the same time, we have got a chance to see Dessys´s home and everyday-life of Camphill community with its permanent inhabitants: mentally disabled people, young volunteers and people, who control and administrate the home.