آینه‌های روبرو (Facing Mirrors)

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Jack's Summary:

I really loved this film. I wish I'd seen it sooner, and I wish there had been more awareness of it in my Western trans and gender-diverse communities.

The film opens with Rana, a woman with traditional values, having a phone call with her husband, Sadegh, in the visiting area of a prison. She is reluctant to admit that she is working as a taxi driver to make extra money while he is incarcerated, to support herself and their son, and to slowly pay off the debt her husband was left with when his business partner abandoned him. Akram, her friend, frets over Rana's decision to drive a taxi, asking what Rana will do if somebody sees her working as a driver.

We are introduced to Eddie as he gets into a car with Marjan, his supportive female cousin, telling her that he was unable to leave Iran because his passport was torn up by his father. Once in the car, he takes off his veil and puts on a beanie. As he drives, they discuss his upcoming wedding to their shared male cousin, and his plans to escape it. He has ordered a new passport, to be delivered to her address, and he will need to hide until she can get it to him.

We find out, later in the film, that Eddie previously lived with his aunt in Germany. While there, he saw a psychiatrist and admitted that he felt like a man, and saw other practitioners who agreed that he was a transsexual. He even began his transition, starting testosterone and booking a surgery. However, after being told that his father was ill, he traveled back to Iran to support his family. As it turned out, this was just a lie to get him back in the country, after which his passport was torn up, he was betrothed to his cousin, and was prevented from traveling freely. (Similar tactics are used by abusive families in real life.) Eddie's father is violent and does not accept Eddie's identity. Emad, Eddie's brother, is more open-minded, and even calls his trans brother by his chosen name instead of Adineh, his birth name.

As Eddie drives with Marjan, a car tailgates him and speeds past him on the road. Annoyed, Eddie speeds after the car, and is stopped by police as a result. He hands the policeman Emad's driver's license, after which he is taken to the police station for using someone else's ID. Eddie's father gets a call from the station, and goes to pick Eddie up.

When we next see Eddie, he is sitting in the backseat of Emad's car with a bleeding lip, his father sitting in the front passenger seat. When Eddie tries to speak up, his father yells, "Shut up before I hit you again!" Emad, disturbed, stops the car, but obeys his father when he's told to resume driving. It is clear that Emad wishes to defy their father, and feels that the abuse is wrong, but cannot bring himself to go through with disobeying. He, too, is afraid of his father.

Eddie's father insists that he will not be allowed to leave home until his wedding day, instructing Emad to watch him to prevent him escaping. The next day, Emad attempts to speak out against the home imprisonment and the wedding, but he is not listened to. Eddie sneaks out despite his father locking down the house to keep him trapped.

Eddie attempts to hitchhike, but two men in a car read him as a female, and begin to harass him. This infuriates him, so he headbutts the man in the passenger seat, starting a fight. As the men run after Eddie, determined to assault him, Rana drives past. Seeing Eddie fleeing the two men, she stops to pick him up, driving off before the men can follow.

He is grateful for her help, saying that she can drop him off wherever, and he will catch a taxi. Upon finding out that she herself is a taxi driver, he is surprised, and asks whether the job makes her feel unsafe. She denies ever feeling unsafe, saying that she only ever picks up female passengers. This makes him uncomfortable, as he hates being perceived as a woman. He takes off his headscarf and puts on a cap, to Rana's shock. She stops the car and insists that she will not continue driving him until he puts his headscarf back on. He has no choice but to do as she asks, because he needs safe transportation out of Tehran.

At a stop along the way, Rana notices that Eddie uses the male toilets instead of the female toilets, and is worried when he hides at the sight of police. As she waits for him in her cab, her anxiety grows about who her passenger is, especially when she checks his bag and finds a large sum of money (he comes from a wealthy family) and his late mother's jewellery.

Once he is back in the car, she quizzes him about who he is, and why he has so much money; whether he is a spy, a criminal, a drug addict, etc. By way of explanation, Eddie says that he needs to leave Iran because, if he doesn't, he will be married to his cousin. Rana does not see this as a problem. Eddie elaborates, saying that the issue is not with his cousin, but with him personally. "I can't take a husband. I'm not a girl," he explains, leading Rana to ask, "What the hell, you're not a virgin?" He replies, "No, I don't mean that," and after a long pause, adds, "Do you know what trans means? Trans means people who want to change their sex. I'm trans."

Rana, a conservative woman who has never met a trans person before, doesn't know what this means and is afraid of Eddie. Panicking, she tells him to get out of her car. When he tries to reassure her that he won't hurt her, she slaps him on the face. He gets out, as instructed. Rana pulls out onto the road without looking, a truck colliding with the side of her car as a result.

Rana wakes up in hospital, finding out that Eddie paid the hospital bill and is paying for Rana's car to be repaired. After reading a note which Eddie left in her hospital bedside table, Rana travels to the repair shop where her car is being fixed. She is surprised to find Eddie waiting for her behind the shop.

After Eddie asks whether she is alright, she questions why he stuck around and helped her; "Weren't you scared of getting caught?" Eddie laughs and says, "What would you have done, in my shoes?" Rana thanks him for repairing her car and paying her medical expenses, handing back the taxi fare money he'd paid her, since she hasn't been able to complete the trip. He refuses to take the money back, and offers to drive her home since she's in no condition to dive herself.

Rana says, "Forgive me... I slapped you because I was shocked. Because I didn't know what to do. I thought a man had deceived me and gotten into my car... I have never met someone like you before... I'm so ashamed of myself. Are you still willing to drive me to Tehran?"

During the long, peaceful drive back to Rana's home, the pair talk about their lives. Eddie tells Rana about never feeling like a girl growing up, the feminine expectations placed upon him when he began puberty, and his sense of being a man growing stronger over time. This is also when he reveals having started testosterone in the past, being acknowledged as an FTM transsexual by practitioners, and being tricked into leaving Germany. Rana tells Eddie about her love of driving, her desire for independence, and memories of driving with her husband.

When the pair arrive at Rana's home, she invites Eddie to stay the night, since it is late and he has nowhere else to go.

However, she forgets to tell her friend Akram, who has been babysitting her son, that Eddie will be there in the morning. As a result, when Akram sees him shaving his face in the bathroom, she assumes that he is a cis man who has broken in. She begins to physically attack him, and tells Rana to call the police. Rana intervenes, but not before Eddie has a bloody nose from being hit. After facing so much physical abuse throughout his life, this affects him deeply, and he sobs alone in the bathroom.

Later, when Akram learns that Eddie helped Rana, and is told that he is a woman, she hugs him and apologises for hitting him. Being treated with affection and gentleness makes Eddie cry with relief, even if he is not being affirmed as a man.

After Akram leaves, Eddie asks Rana if she told Akram the truth about him being a trans man. Rana says she didn't, and couldn't. She says that, while she will help Eddie, she does not understand him, and she believes he is fighting divine will by not living as a woman... thereby committing a sin.

He responds, "You don't understand because you have never been in my shoes. You think that I went to sleep one night, and when I woke up the next day, I decided to be a man? Yes? You're being unfair. I had no choice of being in limbo, just like you had no choice in being a woman. The only difference is that you are not confused... you're not stigmatised. But I am."

As he walks away, fighting back tears, Rana slumps forward, upset by his distress. She cares about him, but his identity contradicts her traditional values, and she doesn't know how to find a balance. I found Rana to be a wonderfully-written and well-acted character, and I appreciated how sensitively this cultural push-and-pull is depicted. Nobody is the bad guy here, aside from Eddie's abusive father. Everybody else is just trying to be authentic to themselves, to their beliefs and their identities, and is struggling.

In another seemingly contradictory act, Rana suggests that Eddie stay at her home until he gets ahold of his new passport. Eddie is surprised by this offer, especially given the conservative values Rana has expressed, and he gratefully accepts.

Over the following days, Rana watches Eddie bonding with Ali, her young son, the way a male role model would. She watches from her window as Eddie kicks a ball with Ali in the yard, overjoyed to see her child so happy, especially given how much he misses his incarcerated father.

This idyllic environment is interrupted by a sudden reminder of how controversial Eddie's existence is. When a debt collector comes knocking, seeking a payment on behalf of Rana's husband, Eddie answers the door without his veil on, presenting as a man. If he is found out as a "woman", he and Rana risk being arrested. Rana lies, claiming that Eddie is her brother; a man related to her, and therefore appropriate to be alone with. Eddie makes a debt payment, and after the collector leaves, acknowledges the risk they were just in.

Following this, Ali wanders out into the yard dressed in his mother's clothing. Like many children do, he is simply playing dress-up. Rana, already panicking after the debt collector's sudden appearance, yells at him to get inside before anybody sees him, chastising him for dressing in female clothing. Eddie watches without comment, sad to witness Rana's kneejerk rejection of gender non-conformity.

That night, Eddie approaches Rana, asking why she was so "cruel" to her son. "Don't worry," he says, "He won't turn into someone like me." Rana does not respond to this, still torn between her conservative values and a growing acceptance of gender diversity. She does not know what to do, or how to feel.

The pair, in a gorgeous conversation, proceed to talk about love and happiness. Rana feels comfortable with Eddie, and Eddie feels comfortable with her. Rana says she will wait for her husband forever, until he is someday released from prison, even though his debt is 18 million tomans (approximately 17 thousand USD in 2010), which may take decades to earn. She is devoted to her husband.

Eddie asks her, "Would you believe me if I say that I wish I were in your shoes?" She laughs, but he adds, "I'm serious. I wish I could be in love with someone, and I could talk about it, with no fear of being hated, damned, or causing embarrassment. I wish I could stay here in my own country, and live with my love... even if there is prison between us. But now I can't even count on my father and brother's love. If you are not forced to leave, you'll never appreciate your homeland." Crying, Rana asks, "Can't you have the operation here?" He confirms that, yes, he could, but his family will not accept him afterwards. He must leave Iran, in order to be free.

The next day, even when Akram suggests that Eddie may cause problems with his masculine presentation, Rana insists that she owes Eddie and trusts him. She still feels conflicted but, as their nighttime conversation showed, she is far more open to transsexualism than she previously claimed.

Eddie gets a call to pick up his passport at the post office. After he picks it up, and is trying to catch a taxi outside, he is accosted by his father, who backhands him across the face. Emad, distressed, holds their father back to stop him beating Eddie further.

Marjan calls Rana, revealing that her father told Eddie's father about the passport awaiting collection at the post office. Rana, at this point, could stand by her expressed conservative values and let Eddie be married off as a wife... but she doesn't. She asks Marjan for Eddie's home address instead.

Rana confronts Eddie's father in his home, much to his shock, and to the shock of Emad.

"She doesn't have a mother to feel for her. You, as her father, should support her, not try to get rid of her or force her into a worse situation," Rana insists, "I have only known your daughter for a few days, but long enough to believe that she is not crazy or a pervert. She doesn't want to annoy or embarrass you. She just can't be like other people. It's not a choice. Whether she's a girl or a boy, she's human... and a good person. I'm sure God loves her, and has mercy on her. Eddie, Adineh, whatever you like, is suffering. If you love her, stop hurting her. When everyone rejects her, don't do the same. Help her, if you love her." Voice shaking, she begs Eddie's father to show his child kindness, but he walks away.

Throughout this whole conversation, Eman has been listening without comment. After his father leaves, he asks Rana with genuine confusion, "Why do you insist on helping her?" Rana explains that, at last, she has accepted that Eddie is her friend, and says she would support her child if that child turned out to be trans as well. Her parting question, directed at Eman, is, "If your father forces you to take a husband, what would you do?" She now understands that this is the position Eddie has been placed in; he is a man, and he is being forced to marry a man against his will.

Eman tries to speak to their father, but cannot convince him to spare Eddie an unwanted marriage. Their father is disgusted by Eddie, saying that he wishes Eddie were disabled instead of trans. "You wish that she were dead, so you wouldn't be disgraced in front of others," Eman argues, heartbroken. Their father does not dispute this.

The next day, as Eman drives an unspeaking, weeping Eddie to the wedding venue, he cries alongside his trans brother. He pulls over on the side of the road and takes Eddie's passport from his jacket pocket. "Your friend is waiting for you. Go," he insists, voice shaking, "She's a good friend. Appreciate her." Looking through the windscreen, Eddie sees Rana waiting beside her parked car. Sobbing, Eman says, "Take care of yourself. Wipe that shit off your face," he adds, referring to the makeup which was forced onto Eddie, making them both laugh.

He watches Eddie run to freedom, still crying.

Eddie gets his happy ending. In his next scene, he is sitting in a medical clinic, and the nurse addresses him by his chosen name. He has resumed testosterone replacement therapy, and has surgery scheduled in three months. As he wanders past a pride parade, his voiceover reveals that he has sent a large sum of money to Rana, determined that she must accept it.

Rana's ending is somewhat more ambiguous. With Eddie's money, her family's debt is paid off, and her husband is released from prison. He is upset with her, when the film ends. It is not clear why; perhaps he is angry that she worked as a taxi driver, or because she befriended a trans man, or because she accepted a large sum of money that trans man and offended Sadegh's honour. Rana has changed a lot during his incarceration, and the ending suggests that she may have changed too much for Sadegh's comfort.

Eddie's stern expression, as we hear dialogue between Rana and Sadegh, suggests that he is aware Rana may face consequences for helping him, to say nothing of Eman.

I suspect that many trans and gender-diverse people may be reluctant to watch this film, especially Western people. Eddie is misgendered throughout this movie, but that is more of a reflection of his cultural context than how accepting or unaccepting the speakers are. There is a lot of nuance in this movie, and unless someone appreciates that, I think they might have a knee-jerk negative reaction to Facing Mirrors, which is a genuine shame. I loved this film. I'm so glad it got made.