The Birthday

The Netherlands 2006 / 63min. Farsi with English subtitles.
Directors Negin Kianfar, Daisy Mohr / Producer Gijs van de Westelaken, Margje de Koning

What does it mean to have a second chance to be born again?

The Birthday follows a young Iranian man’s decision to become a woman and his conservative parents who are challenged to come to terms with it.

In 1976, Ayatollah Khomeini imposed a fatwa to allow people with hormonal disorders to change sex if they wished, because the Koran doesn’t say anything on the subject. Transsexuals don’t have to fear prosecution and they even can change their birth certificates and be “born” again.

Film-makers Mohr and Kianfar take us on a journey with the men and women awaiting gender re-assignment and their families and consider the effects that the sex change procedure will have over many aspects of their subjects’ lives including their faith and their personal liberty, and how it will alter the way they are perceived by society. For the young male protagonist, he will have to give up certain freedoms and adopt the veil.

The Birthday is a film which skilfully provides a balanced yet fascinating portrait of schizophrenic lives in a schizophrenic environment. It offers a window into a world rarely seen, a uniquely liberal perspective in the midst of a fundamentally religious Islamic order.

Find similar films by topic: Ethnic, Gender/Sexuality, Social/Human Interest