The film fol­lows the elec­tion jour­ney of trans­gen­der can­di­date Nayyab Ali, who con­test­ed the Nation­al Assem­bly seat from Okara, Punjab in the 2018 gen­er­al elec­tion in Pak­istan. The doc­u­men­tary evolves around her pas­sioned yet strug­gling cam­paign, the issues that she is fight­ing for and the highs and lows of engag­ing in a demo­c­ra­t­ic process that is skewed in favour of the rich and pow­er­ful. The trans­gen­der com­mu­ni­ty’s fight for effec­tive polit­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion unfolds through the eyes of the pro­tag­o­nist, a transwoman who dreams of the bet­ter­ment of her com­mu­ni­ty and of the day when trans­gen­der people will reach Pak­istan’s assemblies.

Tazeen Bari is a doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er based in Pak­istan. Her films have explored issues of social jus­tice, the sit­u­a­tion of women and the rights of labour. Her latest LETTERS FROM DEATH ROW was acquired by Al Jazeera for Wit­ness and released in late 2019. In 2017 her doc­u­men­tary on social media star Qan­deel Baloch was released by Guardian doc­u­men­taries (QUANDEEL, 25 min, co-direct­ed with Saad Khan). It has over a mil­lion views and won the Women Voices Now award. Her film MATKAY PAY THAPPA fol­lowed the story of Veero Kohli, a freed bonded labour­er who stood in the 2013 gen­er­al elec­tion. In 2016 she made a film under the men­tor­ship of leg­endary Iran­ian direc­tor Abbas Kiarosta­mi at a work­shop in Cuba. Tazeen has worked as a pro­duc­er for two time acad­e­my award win­ning direc­tor Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and also pro­duced an episode for the Emmy Nom­i­nat­ed Vice series WOMAN with Gloria Steinem. She is cur­rent­ly in pro­duc­tion for HEROINS: A SOUTH ASIAN TRILOGY that tells the per­son­al sto­ries of women in India, Pak­istan and Bangladesh’s film indus­try. Tazeen is one of the found­ing mem­bers of the Doc­u­men­tary Asso­ci­a­tion of Pak­istan and is also cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing her first fic­tion script.

Direc­tor: Tazeen Bari
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Sham­ber Alexan­der, Tazeen Bari
Edit­ing: Cate­ri­na Monzani
Con­tact: tazeenb@gmail.com
Com­mis­sioned by Hein­rich Böll Stiftung