Documentary on Palestinian trans community to headline Tel Aviv film festival

Organizers of TLVFest, the Tel Aviv International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, announced that the opening movie of the festival will be the highly topical The Belle from Gaza, a documentary about Palestinian trans people who have fled Gaza to live in Tel Aviv. The yearly festival, they said, will be held as planned, from October 31-November 10 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.

The Belle from Gaza was directed by Yolande Zauberman and had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last spring. While Western protesters may call themselves Queers for Palestine, actual transgender people from Gaza must flee if they want to live openly. 

While filming a previous movie in Israel, Zauberman heard about a trans woman who had left Gaza, and The Belle from Gaza details the director’s search for her. In the course of her research, she uncovers a fascinating world of Palestinian transgender people living under the radar in Israel. 

One of the film’s protagonists, Talleen Abu Hanna, will be present at the opening night, as will Zauberman. 

“I am proud to open this year’s festival with The Belle from Gaza, one of the most beautiful, smart, sad, and funniest films screened at the last Cannes Film Festival,” said Yair Hochner, the founder and director of the festival. “The film brings to the forefront the voices of brave, smart, and emotional trans women who live on the fringes of Israeli society. 

Others honored at the festival

“Yolande Zauberman is one of the most important and original filmmakers in France. She has already worked in Israel in her previous films and here, too, she creates fresh and unusual cinema that succeeds at being topical, entertaining, and subversive all at once. She conveys the difficult reality in a way that does not glamorize anything. I am sure that the audience will have a particularly exciting cinematic experience.”

The festival will honor two entertainers. Eliot (aka Ellyott), the first female Israeli singer to come out of the closet, has been a major voice in the indie/pop scene here. Hana Laslo, the first Israeli actress to win the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Amos Gitai’s Free Zone, has shown support for LGBTQ+ community in Israel throughout her long career. She will portray Dr. Ruth Westheimer in an upcoming biopic. 

The full program of the festival will be announced soon at www.tlvfest.com/en