There is an old photograph that the maker have of this girl, a rumored trans woman who escaped the militarized confines of Gaza. The exact story of this phantom beauty seems to shift with each new person interviewed — one subject leads to the next in search of the Belle — and whether she exists at all, as a real person or a political fantasy, is frequently in doubt. Each girl tells a different possibility, implying what might happen to this Belle were she or her Palestinian origins discovered — deportation, or worse — while hinting toward the nightly troubles each of these women must navigate. The documentary interweaves the often tragic lives of several transgender women, some of whom are prostitutes. Israela, who comes from an Orthodox Jewish background, tells the story of her marriage to a rabbi, to whom she confessed being trans when she wanted a divorce. Danielle, who came from the Palestinian territories, was kidnapped by men from her hometown. She survived but her mother told her, "I regret that they didn't kill you". Conversely, Talleen Abu Hanna, winner of Miss Trans Israel in 2016, feels accepted and expresses her gratitude to her country.
The women in this doc confront layers of oppression. Not only are many of them Palestinians living in Israel, but they are also trans. They wrestle with a dual displacement, from both state and family. She meets Danièle and Nathalie, two trans women. For self-protection, Nathalie wears a veil during her interviews; over the course of the film, she returns to her faith. How she reconciles her transition and being a Muslim. It’s interesting to see how all the trans women portrayed find strength and solace in religion, be it Christianity or Islam. “If God made me like this, he made me like this for a reason,” one of them states. Besides keeping a very controversial name of the film, especially in today's climate, this documentary falls extremely short on what it probably wanted to achieve. The film maker asks very basic, direct questions about their transition, often focusing on their bodies – on surgery, genitals and sex – or asking whether they regret it. The kinds of questions that many cisgender people typically ask transgender people, over and over again, and are generally seen as rude and stigmatising. This film is about trans people, but it is clearly made by and for cis people. (3/10)
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