The Invisible Men (Hebrew/Arabic/English) (Documentary)

Documentaries are hard to make, they are long projects and you need some solid material to keep the interest of audience going. This documentary scores big on both these issues. As it is we know very little about Palestine, so an untold story of gay Palestinians dealing wit hIsrael-Palestine conflict was never going to be an easy subject to film and prepare.

We meet Louie, a gay Palestinian forced to flee the West Bank when his father attacks him with a knife after learning of his sexual orientation. Louie escapes to Tel Aviv, where he lives by taking odd jobs and dodging Israeli police. He has been sent back to Palestine multiple times by the police but everytime he manages to come back. When he takes connects with lawyers, he learns about Abdu, an outspoken gay Palestinian who is seeking refuge to get out of this mess. According to him "The Palestinians won’t accept us because we are gay, and the Israelis won’t accept us because we are Palestinians without permits." He is eventually granted asylum, but Louie is very confused about leaving his land. and culture. In his words, “I want to breathe my culture, my land. I really don’t want to go abroad.” but unfortunately there is no other option for him. We also meet briefly Fares, who was sent out of home for being gay and now his family is trying to find him to kill him. He follows the suit and manages to get asylum.

Firstly, I have to say that it is very very courageous of these 3 men to come out and show their names and faces in such an important documentary. Thank God they are now all living in another country happy and safe. The documentary focuses predominantly on Louie and his friendship with Abdu after the pair are introduced by the Israeli LGBT community centre that is handling the refugee applications. It is done in a simple story telling format, there are no ups or downs as such. It is weird to understand that when Israel is one of the countries known to be very tolerant of its own gay community, their unwillingness to grant asylum to gay Palestinians is a whole different beast.

This is a very new subject for me and opens my mind for more thought on how much different situations we all have and makes me thankful and gratitude for me not being in a bad situation as some gay people around the world are. This film came back in 2012, but I can't imagine things being any different today in the region.

I'd like to have hope that one day people and society will get over a few things and be better supports for each other. Till then I am appreciative of watching educating documentaries like this to increase my worldly knowledge. (6.5/10)

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