Docu highlighting plight, bravery of Palestinian trans women in Israel debuts at Cannes
Focused on search for a trans woman rumored to have walked from Gaza to Tel Aviv, Yolande Zauberman’s ‘The Belle From Gaza’ highlights those she calls ‘warriors of their own destiny’
An intimate documentary about Palestinian transsexual women in Israel, filmed before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, screened at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday.
In “The Belle From Gaza,” French filmmaker Yolande Zauberman delves into Tel Aviv nightlife, camera in hand, in search of a trans woman rumored to have walked on foot all the way from the Gaza Strip.
On her quest to find the mythical figure, Zauberman meets others who candidly recount running away from their families, the struggle to affirm their gender identity, and their romantic dreams.
“They’re real warriors of their own destiny,” she told AFP ahead the premiere at Cannes, where she was joined by some of the film’s subjects on the red carpet.
“Trans women were once viewed as goddesses and demi-goddesses. I wanted to give them that place in the film.”
“Gaza at the time was already a jail for people,” she told The Guardian. “For somebody to manage to escape that jail is already an achievement. And then to be or to become a trans woman?”
“After a while I thought, maybe it’s better not to find her, because what would we do if we find the Belle from Gaza?”, Zauberman said. “Isn’t it going to be too dangerous for her?”
Zauberman told the British newspaper that at one stage after the October 7 onslaught that sparked the ongoing war between Israel and the terror group that rules Gaza, she considered withdrawing the film.
“I thought maybe we should not show this movie for the moment, because what’s happening is so big, so huge,” she said, adding that after the film was received positively in screenings with Jewish and Arab test audiences, she decided to go ahead with it.
It is Zauberman’s latest film to explore the taboo margins of Israeli society following her 2011 movie on racism, “Would you Have Sex with An Arab?” and 2020’s “M,” in which she followed a survivor of rape within the ultra-orthodox Jewish community.
“The Belle From Gaza” follows Danielle, Nadine and Nathalie as they battle to escape a life of prostitution.
“They are safe and not safe,” Zauberman told The Guardian, noting that the women faced not only the dangers of the street, but some aren’t legally in Israel. “Above all, they are really strong. And to live their life, you really have to be.”
‘Accept myself’
The success story the women aspire to is embodied by Talleen Abu Hanna, a Palestinian Christian Israeli who won Miss Trans Israel 2016 and managed to patch up ties with her family.
Abu Hanna said Miss Trans Israel was a chance for a fresh start.
“It’s given me the chance to feel human… to accept myself,” she told AFP.
Initially, her father had no idea what “trans” or “gay” meant.
It took time “to teach my family how to accept me and how to love me,” she said.
Pro-Palestinian activists have long accused Israel of “pinkwashing,” or boasting of its acceptance of the LGBTQ community to cover up its treatment of Palestinians.
But Abu Hanna said her role was not to “pinkwash” anything.
“This is my real life,” she told AFP.
Zauberman agreed: “There is a freedom in Tel Aviv that does not exist in other parts of the Middle East,” she said.
“And then there is also a territorial arrogance, a colonial arrogance that is unbearable,” she said, referring to the Israeli government’s policies toward the Palestinians.
