A very special example of when worlds collide will be on display at the Castro Theatre this week as Tomer Heymann's Paper Dolls goes inside the stranger-than-fiction world of Filipino transsexuals employed as domestic workers in Tel Aviv.
The Paper Dolls are men living as women. By day, they care for Israeli retirees, some elderly people with dementia who barely remember their own names, let alone the unique identities of their paid companions. By night, the Paper Dolls perform drag shows with special themes. At first catering only to a small exile community of Filipino domestics, by the time the openly gay filmmaker first meets them, the Paper Dolls are auditioning to play in a large Israeli gay nightclub.
Heymann's film gradually changes from a close-up of an exotic subculture to a film that sees Israeli society through the eyes of these 30something cross-dressers, many of whom first came to Israel to escape their own repressive Catholic backgrounds, under the somewhat false impression that Israel was still "the Promised Land."
Heymann's camera explores dark sides of Israeli life — a viciously homophobic cab-driver spits out his hatred of "these slinky, Filipino, 'fake' women"; we observe furtive sexual encounters between closeted Israeli men; and the Paper Dolls' sanctuary is threatened by terrorist attacks and an immigration crackdown by a government that has made too many promises to too many constituencies, and now uses the Paper Dolls as classic scapegoats.
The film has a gentle rhythm and sweetly intimate moments, as when Paper Doll Sally asks single gay guy Tomer why he doesn't find a boyfriend or else move back home with his mother, Sally, who's also alone.
It's an entertaining 90 minutes, including performance segments and a mildly upbeat ending. Filmmaker Heymann, whom some readers may recall for his provocative examination of a group of feckless Tel Aviv street-kids attempting a drama club It Kind of Scares Me, dropped by our office in June to describe his discovery of the Paper Dolls.
Tomer Heymann: I first met them at the central bus station in Tel Aviv. I saw in front of me six or seven Filipinos, men or women, you can't really tell who they are. I just asked, "Are you the Paper Dolls?" A moment of silence, then one of them cried out, "Are there any other Paper Dolls around? Are you crazy? We are the only Paper Dolls in Israel." And they joke about it. Then they asked me to come to a show, and I noticed something very strong going on. I didn't know it was going to take six years to finish the film.
David Lamble: How did these Filipino transsexual women happen to wind up in Israel?
Before Israel, they worked in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim country. They have this image, this illusion about Israel as a "promised land" — just holy people, no gays and no transsexuals. But because they're born in very Catholic families, they want to be in Jerusalem, or in Tel Aviv or the Holy Land. So when they arrived in Israel, they were shocked by what's going on. Before the Paper Dolls, you didn't really find transsexual people in Israel. They have a drag show for the gay Filipino community in Israel. In some ways, the Paper Dolls created this community. If you remember from the movie, you have this taxi driver who really hates them, and talks very bad things about them. He's a symbol of just how many straight people still see these transsexual people as evil, as outsiders: "We don't want you in our country!" The beginning for the Paper Dolls was really, really hard, but they are a strong, beautiful, amazing people!
They seem to have a very shadowy status in Israel.
When they arrived in Israel, all of them were legal, invited by this manpower company to take these black-market jobs which don't pay much, which few people in Israel want to take, like here in America. You can't find Americans who want to take care of old people, clean houses, or work in restaurants. It's the same in Israel, but because the Israeli government changed so many times in the last six years, each government changed the policy. Each Israeli minister had a different, crazy policy, and the Paper Dolls are the victims of this craziness. As you see in the movie, as soon as one of them is fired, he becomes illegal in one day!
It seemed that the Israeli nightclub owner who tried to "upgrade" the Paper Dolls' act actually took the spirit away from the group.
The Paper Dolls waited so long to have a show in the best club in Tel Aviv, with many gay people around, and then this manager treated them like shit.
It seems oddly like the situation with the Cotton Club in Harlem in the 1920s, where black people could perform but not attend as customers.
It's the same. These Filipino transsexuals were not allowed to get in because they were not enough like Israelis — they don't have the money for the cover charge and drinks. You'd think gay people would be more open and accepting, but they're not.