One Thousand and One Queer Stories

We were far from imagining—when we decided a year ago to dedicate our “The Gaze of…” section to Arab and Persian queer cinema—that geopolitical events would completely disrupt that region of the world, particularly Iran and Lebanon. The conflicts there have already caused thousands of victims and left millions of people unprotected, including its LGBTQ+ communities. Our desire to focus on these communities is longstanding, because every year we receive numerous proposals from Lebanese, Palestinian, Iranian, and Moroccan directors who portray these very active communities despite the enormous legal and social challenges they face daily. In much of the Arab world and in Iran, virtually everything remains to be done for LGBTQ+ people to enjoy legal and social recognition. In many of these countries, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by law, and in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates, having same-sex relations can be punishable by death. In Iran—paradoxically—transgender identity is recognized, but only because it is considered an illness that must be “cured” through gender reassignment surgery.

Despite everything, cinema manages to find its way into our programming and speak to us—despite its inconceivable difficulties—about the experiences, stories, creativity, and hopes of Arab and Persian communities. Iran, in particular, with its extraordinary cinematic tradition and despite a regime that abhors homosexuality, produces numerous films each year that address the daily lives of LGBTQ+ people. We see this in the powerful film The Crowd, which cries out for the aspirations of an exhausted and martyred Iranian youth, demanding their freedom and their affective diversity. The Iranian LGBTQ+ diaspora is also addressed in On sera heureux.

Every year, admirable films arrive from Lebanon, a country that leads the way—not only because of its long history as a bridge between East and West, but also because homosexuality is not illegal there—in the development of dynamic Arab queer communities, stimulated by constant exchanges with its vast diaspora. In this regard, we are once again joined by a director who is a regular in the FIRE!! program, our dear Hadi Moussally. This year he will present the latest adventures of his alter ego Salma Zahore—delightfully eccentric yet fiercely insightful about what it means to be gay in an Arab country—as well as other extraordinary Lebanese films such as Warsha, by Dania Bdeir, and Tea with Adonis, by Selim Mourad. Another Lebanese director, Omar Gabriel, will be present with testimonies from his series A Letter to Myself, as well as his extraordinary Don’t Take My Joy Away. And we’ll open the festival with a beautiful Moroccan lesbian film, Bouchra, by Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, which masterfully uses animation to highlight the nuances of the dialogue between a mother and her daughter about what it means to be a lesbian.

These are just some of the many queer stories we offer you at this edition of FIRE!!, hoping to contribute, even if only with a small spark, to greater visibility for Arab and Persian LGBTQ+ communities.