Facing mirrors (2011)

Eddie is on the run from his family. He jumps into Rana's taxi. Rana supports her family by driving the taxi, but not all family members know that this is what she does. She only takes female passengers and in Eddie she sees a girl. Eddie is on his way to go to Germany to have a sex-change operation. He persuades Rana to take him out of Teheran. In Iran, his family has marriage plans for him. At first, I was afraid that Facing Mirrors (dir. Negar Azarbayjani) would become too much of a 'social issues' film. Afterwards, I realized I appreciated the film on other levels as well. The surroundings - wintry Teheran and desolated roads - were haunting and the minimalistic style of the film worked well. I also liked how the characters were treated. The juxtapositions never became too boxy - the director dodges stereotypes about the traditional and the modern, male and female, hetero and gay. All in all, I thought the film conjured up a moving image of the sudden and drastic thing that friendship is.