Facing Mirrors

Rana drives a taxi to keep her family; Eddie is a trans man whose family will not let him live as himself, and he has fled his city. Their paths cross, and what follows is a film about two people who know nothing of each other’s lives coming to know each other on the same journey. What Eddie is waiting for is his passport: he wants to travel to Germany for gender confirmation surgery. Negar Azarbayjani’s first feature is the first fiction film written, made and screened in Iran with a trans man as its central character. Shayesteh Irani plays Eddie, and Homayoun Ershadi is among the principal cast. It was shown in Toronto in September 2011 and in Iran on 24 October 2012, and it won best first feature at the Frameline festival in San Francisco. The record describes Eddie with a term that is no longer in use.