Hot Docs 2008

Would it surprise you to know that sex change operations are legal in Iran, a theocratic state with strict social mores and fundamentalist values? More than 20 years ago, Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious edict) making sex changes permissible for "diagnosed transsexuals." Yet homosexuality remains punishable by death. Forced to live in secret for fear of retribution, a generation of young Iranian men are adopting an identity legally allowed to them-transsexual. In pursuit of what one man simply calls "a decent life," they flock to the country's best-established gender reassignment surgeon, where they are counselled by 24-year-old Vida, an eloquent post-op woman who claims to be "reborn" but warns the men of the dangers they face. Intimate and unflinching, Be Like Others accompanies several young men through their transformations. Capturing the complexities of Iranian society, it's a fascinating portrait of people on the fringes of Iranian life looking for acceptance through the most radical of means.

Co-presented with Xtra!