Gender and Displacement: Film Showcase

A Monster Outside Human Laws / Director: Nnull

A year ago Nnull (a pseudonym to protect his identity as he is persecuted in his country of origin) found himself at a difficult crossroad when his UK visa was about to expire. Part of his documentation of his gender transition, ‘A Monster Outside Human Laws’ reflects on how his situation reveals contradictions in the narratives that surround the European Migration Crisis.

Nnull’s work unpacks intergenerational trauma and intersectional struggles that he faces, while attempting to help others along the way. Through melancholic diarised reflections and overheard phone conversation, this autobiographical work journals his experiences as a transgender migrant navigating VISA and job applications in the UK and interrogates how inequality is systematically constructed.

Nnull invites you to look over his shoulder and swim around in his brain as he affirms the experiences of those who face injustice.

Adam / Director: Cora Bissett

Inspired by the life of Adam Kashmiry, Adam tells the remarkable story of a young trans man and his struggle across genders and borders to be himself. Originally a multi-award-winning stage play, Adam has been reinvented as a compelling, theatrical on-screen drama.

Born in Egypt, Adam was assigned female at birth but always knew he was a boy. Trapped in a deeply conservative society where falling in love with the wrong person can get you killed, he knew that he had to escape. With a borrowed laptop he typed in a question: ‘Can the soul of a man be trapped in the body of a woman?’ What followed was a catalyst to begin the epic journey for the right to change his body. To the boy he knew himself to be.

Written by playwright and dramaturg Frances Poet, and reworked for the screen, this hour-long drama focuses on Adam’s isolating experiences in a Glasgow flat while awaiting a decision on his asylum claim. Trapped in a Catch-22 where he cannot prove his need for asylum as a trans man until he transitions but is unable to start transitioning until he is granted asylum, Adam is left alone to wrestle with his conflicting thoughts and feelings as every waking moment sees him haunted by figures from both his past and his present.