Transformation (2022)
Malika, a transgender woman, and Mohamed, are a young couple from Kabul, who fled their families honour killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments, in order to be able to be together and cultivate their forbidden love for each other. Regardless of poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis, their love towards each other, keep them fighting for a better life in Turkey. We follow their challenging journey and transformation from scratch through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGO's and even "adopting" a new member to their self-made family from the streets. As their life seems to get better from the outside, unexpected and darker perspectives surface, and leave the audience to question the muddy waters of ethics between victimhood and becoming a perpetrator.
In the following months after the USA withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, a young Kabul couple, have found their way to the dark and dodgy Afghan neighborhood, Zeytinburnu,in Istanbul. Malika - a transgender woman who together with Mohamed, the love of her life, have fled their families honor killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments to be able to cultivate their forbidden love for each other, in the hope of achieving a new and better life in Turkey. One day they pass by the young and homeless ”Ilham,” who is sitting on the pavement with nowhere to go, and decide to bring an extra person into their self-made family. Together the three of them are facing poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis. But their self-claimed support towards each other, keeps them fighting for their dreams, whatever it takes. On their tumultuous and challenging journey and transformation through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGOs. As they obtain residency and move into their own place, their circumstances seem to improve from the outside. But unexpected and darker perspectives surface, revealing a surprising twist of perception, when Ilham runs away and claims they have prostituted him out to other men.
Director Biography - Saeed Mayahy and Miriam Carlsen
Director Biography - Saeed Mayahy and Miriam Carlsen
Saeed Mayahy is an Iranian film director born in 1991 in Bushehr. He graduated from Bushehr Film School in 2013, where he debuted in with the documentary “The Camera” in 2012. Since then 10 films have followed. ”Don’t worry, be happy” was bought by NRK TV station and others have been screened at many festivals such as Miami International Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival, Arpa film festival, Giffoni film festival, Canberra Short Film Festival, Linz International Short Film Festival, San Francisco Frozen Film Festival, Chicago International Movies and Music Festival, Festival Filministes, The International Outdoor Documentary Film Festival of China.
Miriam Carlsen grew up in a globetrotter family, with a dad specializing in sustainable energy solutions for Third World countries. Traveling and hosting people from all national and ethnically backgrounds, has shaped her passion for human narratives and their impact on cultural bridge building. She worked in Norway in the organization RAMP, an NGO for integrating team building and guidance for orphanage refugee minors from Iraq and Afghanistan. It led to an increased interest for a deeper understanding of human life in the MENA region and interest in the Afghan matter. Later on, she learned Arabic and lived in the Middle East.
Since then, she has lived in Taiwan, Lebanon and Turkey and furthermore spend a good deal of her life, traveling the Globe. The last couple of years, she worked as an international television reporter in Istanbul. However, she missed the human faces and in-depth coverage in the news feeds and the more personal story telling. When she came up with the idea for making this documentary film, she left her corporate life to pursue the privilege of being fully in charge of creative decision-making and the production process.
Except for a few courses in film production, she is autodidact in film creation, driven by an interest in visual story telling and social relations. With a background in Social Anthropology, she has lived and worked with cultural dissemination and film languages in Taiwan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Saeed Mayahy and Miriam Carlsen - Directors' Statement
We believe, creativity always lives somewhere in everyone, but the trick is not to force it into a certain outcome. Rather, to focus your energy to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when, what we expected to happen, did not happen. While making a documentary, you have to know, you are not the superior director to the story you are telling. Life is. Everything might change. The story is a fragment of a reality, not a pre-written script. You have to stay humble and be ready for what life throws at your characters, and work with that. You are not creating fiction, and there will be limits, you can not cross, if you want to maintain the filter between the film and the experienced reality as thin as possible. You must be aware, that a new happening, can change everything.
For example, a piece of footage may at first seem insignificant, and just to discard. But as the story progresses, what happens in life, might suddenly make that very same footage become of the highest importance in retrospective.
We work with these hundreds of fragments from the characters' life in order to rebuild a new entity. It is like putting together a mosaic. It might take a long time for us to see how we can put the pieces together the best possible way. What motive we create with the pieces. New pieces might be added. The motive might change over and over, before the final picture appears.
We start with something, and sometimes we destroy everything that we've made for the purpose to get to the core place where we started from.
Please tell us your motivation for making your film:
In the following months after the USA withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, a young Kabul couple, have found their way to the dark and dodgy Afghan neighborhood, Zeytinburnu,in Istanbul. Malika - a transgender woman who together with Mohamed, the love of her life, have fled their families honor killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments to be able to cultivate their forbidden love for each other, in the hope of achieving a new and better life in Turkey. One day they pass by the young and homeless ”Ilham,” who is sitting on the pavement with nowhere to go, and decide to bring an extra person into their self-made family. Together the three of them are facing poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis. But their self-claimed support towards each other, keeps them fighting for their dreams, whatever it takes. On their tumultuous and challenging journey and transformation through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGOs. As they obtain residency and move into their own place, their circumstances seem to improve from the outside. But unexpected and darker perspectives surface, revealing a surprising twist of perception, when Ilham runs away and claims they have prostituted him out to other men.
What is the theme of your submission?:
transsexuals'
What was the message you wanted to convey with this project?:
all lgbtq are same and we have to respect them
Credits:
Saeed Mayahy
Director
Saeed Mayahy
Writer
Finish Line - wash me please - swan lake
Saeed Mayahy
Producer
Miriam Carlsen
Producer
Malika Hamidi
Key Cast
"Malika Hamidi"
Project Specifications:
Project Type:
Documentary
Runtime:
52 minutes
Completion Date:
August 15, 2022
Production Budget:
10,000 USD
Country of Origin:
Turkey
Country of Filming:
Turkey
Language:
Arabic, English, Persian
Shooting Format:
Digital
Aspect Ratio:
16-9
Film Color:
Color
First-time Filmmaker:
No
Student Project:
No
Website:
https://www.transformationthemovie.com/
News & Reviews
- Year2023
- Runtime52:00
- LanguagePersian
- CountryTurkey
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- Notehttps://www.transformationthemovie.com/
- DirectorSaeed Mayahy, Carlsen Miriam
Transformation (2022)
Malika, a transgender woman, and Mohamed, are a young couple from Kabul, who fled their families honour killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments, in order to be able to be together and cultivate their forbidden love for each other. Regardless of poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis, their love towards each other, keep them fighting for a better life in Turkey. We follow their challenging journey and transformation from scratch through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGO's and even "adopting" a new member to their self-made family from the streets. As their life seems to get better from the outside, unexpected and darker perspectives surface, and leave the audience to question the muddy waters of ethics between victimhood and becoming a perpetrator.
In the following months after the USA withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, a young Kabul couple, have found their way to the dark and dodgy Afghan neighborhood, Zeytinburnu,in Istanbul. Malika - a transgender woman who together with Mohamed, the love of her life, have fled their families honor killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments to be able to cultivate their forbidden love for each other, in the hope of achieving a new and better life in Turkey. One day they pass by the young and homeless ”Ilham,” who is sitting on the pavement with nowhere to go, and decide to bring an extra person into their self-made family. Together the three of them are facing poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis. But their self-claimed support towards each other, keeps them fighting for their dreams, whatever it takes. On their tumultuous and challenging journey and transformation through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGOs. As they obtain residency and move into their own place, their circumstances seem to improve from the outside. But unexpected and darker perspectives surface, revealing a surprising twist of perception, when Ilham runs away and claims they have prostituted him out to other men.
Director Biography - Saeed Mayahy and Miriam Carlsen
Director Biography - Saeed Mayahy and Miriam Carlsen
Saeed Mayahy is an Iranian film director born in 1991 in Bushehr. He graduated from Bushehr Film School in 2013, where he debuted in with the documentary “The Camera” in 2012. Since then 10 films have followed. ”Don’t worry, be happy” was bought by NRK TV station and others have been screened at many festivals such as Miami International Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival, Arpa film festival, Giffoni film festival, Canberra Short Film Festival, Linz International Short Film Festival, San Francisco Frozen Film Festival, Chicago International Movies and Music Festival, Festival Filministes, The International Outdoor Documentary Film Festival of China.
Miriam Carlsen grew up in a globetrotter family, with a dad specializing in sustainable energy solutions for Third World countries. Traveling and hosting people from all national and ethnically backgrounds, has shaped her passion for human narratives and their impact on cultural bridge building. She worked in Norway in the organization RAMP, an NGO for integrating team building and guidance for orphanage refugee minors from Iraq and Afghanistan. It led to an increased interest for a deeper understanding of human life in the MENA region and interest in the Afghan matter. Later on, she learned Arabic and lived in the Middle East.
Since then, she has lived in Taiwan, Lebanon and Turkey and furthermore spend a good deal of her life, traveling the Globe. The last couple of years, she worked as an international television reporter in Istanbul. However, she missed the human faces and in-depth coverage in the news feeds and the more personal story telling. When she came up with the idea for making this documentary film, she left her corporate life to pursue the privilege of being fully in charge of creative decision-making and the production process.
Except for a few courses in film production, she is autodidact in film creation, driven by an interest in visual story telling and social relations. With a background in Social Anthropology, she has lived and worked with cultural dissemination and film languages in Taiwan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Saeed Mayahy and Miriam Carlsen - Directors' Statement
We believe, creativity always lives somewhere in everyone, but the trick is not to force it into a certain outcome. Rather, to focus your energy to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when, what we expected to happen, did not happen. While making a documentary, you have to know, you are not the superior director to the story you are telling. Life is. Everything might change. The story is a fragment of a reality, not a pre-written script. You have to stay humble and be ready for what life throws at your characters, and work with that. You are not creating fiction, and there will be limits, you can not cross, if you want to maintain the filter between the film and the experienced reality as thin as possible. You must be aware, that a new happening, can change everything.
For example, a piece of footage may at first seem insignificant, and just to discard. But as the story progresses, what happens in life, might suddenly make that very same footage become of the highest importance in retrospective.
We work with these hundreds of fragments from the characters' life in order to rebuild a new entity. It is like putting together a mosaic. It might take a long time for us to see how we can put the pieces together the best possible way. What motive we create with the pieces. New pieces might be added. The motive might change over and over, before the final picture appears.
We start with something, and sometimes we destroy everything that we've made for the purpose to get to the core place where we started from.
Please tell us your motivation for making your film:
In the following months after the USA withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, a young Kabul couple, have found their way to the dark and dodgy Afghan neighborhood, Zeytinburnu,in Istanbul. Malika - a transgender woman who together with Mohamed, the love of her life, have fled their families honor killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments to be able to cultivate their forbidden love for each other, in the hope of achieving a new and better life in Turkey. One day they pass by the young and homeless ”Ilham,” who is sitting on the pavement with nowhere to go, and decide to bring an extra person into their self-made family. Together the three of them are facing poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis. But their self-claimed support towards each other, keeps them fighting for their dreams, whatever it takes. On their tumultuous and challenging journey and transformation through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGOs. As they obtain residency and move into their own place, their circumstances seem to improve from the outside. But unexpected and darker perspectives surface, revealing a surprising twist of perception, when Ilham runs away and claims they have prostituted him out to other men.
What is the theme of your submission?:
transsexuals'
What was the message you wanted to convey with this project?:
all lgbtq are same and we have to respect them
Credits:
Saeed Mayahy
Director
Saeed Mayahy
Writer
Finish Line - wash me please - swan lake
Saeed Mayahy
Producer
Miriam Carlsen
Producer
Malika Hamidi
Key Cast
"Malika Hamidi"
Project Specifications:
Project Type:
Documentary
Runtime:
52 minutes
Completion Date:
August 15, 2022
Production Budget:
10,000 USD
Country of Origin:
Turkey
Country of Filming:
Turkey
Language:
Arabic, English, Persian
Shooting Format:
Digital
Aspect Ratio:
16-9
Film Color:
Color
First-time Filmmaker:
No
Student Project:
No
Website:
https://www.transformationthemovie.com/
News & Reviews
- Year2023
- Runtime52:00
- LanguagePersian
- CountryTurkey
- Subtitle LanguageEnglish
- Notehttps://www.transformationthemovie.com/
- DirectorSaeed Mayahy, Carlsen Miriam
