Monday April 30

7:30 pm

Regal 17

U.S,2007,video


Directed by:
Parvez Sharma

A Jihad for Love is a documentary film of epic proportions, tackling the taboo topic of homosexuality in the religious culture of the Islamic world. Filmed in 12 countries, spanning 9 languages and produced in association with five international TV broadcasters, gay Muslim filmmaker Parvez Sharma takes us into the secretive world of gay and lesbian Muslims. Produced by Sandi DuBowski (director/producer of Trembling Before G-d), A Jihad for Love is now in post-production and will be launched in the Fall - Miami audiences are being treated to an ultra-exclusive excerpt from this Work-in-Progress.

In the scenes we're privy to, we meet a group of Iranian gay refugees who have fled Turkey, one of them brutally lashed after being arrested at a gay party. Fearful of being deported back to Iran, they hope for asylum in the West. In Egypt, we learn of the infamous case of The Cairo 52, when a group of men were arrested at a gay discotheque. One of those caught was Mazen, who painfully describes his torture, imprisonment, and escape to Paris. Tormented by the horrors he endured, struggling with being an Arab immigrant to France, he befriends a Somalian lesbian, Sana, who knows his fight. Then there is Kiymet and Ferda, a lesbian couple living happily together against the grain of society in Istanbul, Turkey. And there is Imam Muhsin Hendricks, who has taken an extraordinary step to come out as an openly gay imam in South Africa and be a courageous voice against the injustice he sees - we witness his deep love of Islam and his incredible journey of faith and transformation. All of these emarkable individuals in A Jihad for Love (and there are a few more too that we will see in the final film) enable the story of Islam to be told by its most unlikely storytellers - a critical narrative in our post-9/11 world.

Total running time: 70min.