Utpal Borpujari in Panaji
Many a classic film got screened at the 47th International Film Festival of India here this year, but one film and its protagonist stole the show like no other. The film is “Tamara”, inspired by the life and struggles of Tomas Mariano Adrian Hernandez, now Tamara Adrian, who is the first transgender person to become the Member of Parliament in Venezuela.
The world premiere of the film at IFFI drew a packed house, and an emotional Tamara Adrian bowed before the audience that had gathered to watch the screen depiction of her search for true self and the day-to-day struggle she undergoes with societal taboos as well as inner conflicts regarding who a person wants to become in contrast to what the society wants the person to be.
Talking about her experiences, Adrian says that her story is the story of all the underprivileged and excluded minorities the world over, especially the transgender community, that face a discrimination on a daily basis.
“For every transgender, there are two kinds of troubles. One is to fight against yourself and recognise who you are and the second is a fight against the lack of identity, exclusion and violence by rest of the world,” she says.
Human rights are for all humans equally and no one should be deprived of that, Adrian says. “I hope that cinema would increasingly bring such issues to the fore and start debates in the society to initiate an evolution in the collective consciousness across the globe,” she says.
Writer-director Elia Schneider says that the film is a reaction to the norms and the codes of conduct prescribed by a society that refuse any change in the societal mind set attributed to the human condition. “It is a film about Transphobia, the hatred that the society exhibits against transgenders,” she says.
“The most difficult part of the film was how not to tell the story of Tamara. This story has taken five years to translate into the film and as it is dealing with a sensitive social issue, it is a very important theme that needs to be debated widely in the society,” she says.
Luis Fernandez, who acts as Adrian in the film, points out that discrimination against minorities is deep seated in our societies and there is a need for all of us to unlearn these prejudices in the very first place. “We have to educate our children from the very beginning to see the world with an open mind and accept diversities in the society around us,” he says.