Belly dancing, hot boys and beauty pageants...
are three of the most unlikely things that come to mind when you think of the war in Syria.
ISIS is everywhere. I don’t want innocent people to die because of a competition
The film Mr Gay Syria tells one of the most overlooked stories borne out of the Syrian conflict.
Director Ayse Toprak spent the past two years following LGBTQI Syrian refugees
putting their lives on the line every day in search of freedom.
Some of them find under the table jobs, drug trafficking, sex working
it’s a lot of dodgy things that they have to do in order to survive.
They’re probably the only people that nobody wants because of the regime
but they are also not wanted from the opposition either.
Ayse, welcome to Australia, it's lovely to have you here.
Thank you so much.
Now, despite the films name it’s not really about a beauty pageant is it?
It really isn't. It uses the beauty pageant as a way of showing one man's coming out story
in a very conservative, Arabic, Turkish setting.
There is a love story in the film, it's about migration at the same time.
And also the difficulties of surviving as a refugee in Turkey.
Mr Gay Syria is contestant number four.
You’re in a really strange predicament, you’ve made this incredible documentary
but you can’t show Hussein in the promotion of the film.
Which I'm really confused about.
Yes, I am indeed in a very strange position and we can’t promote the film online or on TV
because Hussein is still in Istanbul. Until he gets out of Istanbul we are trying to be very careful about his security.
So you guys are kind of the exception.
This is the first time we're allowing a feature to be made about Mr Gay Syria
but you have to find creative ways of what you can show and what you can't show.
Husein’s story is the centrepiece of the doco. He’s closeted, Muslim, has a wife and a daughter.
He only agreed to be in the film on the condition it’s only shown in cinemas outside of Turkey and the Arab World
which is why we can’t show his face here.
Although he escapes war-torn Syria, he still feels his life in Turkey is under siege.
Husein wins the title of My Gay Syria in Istanbul, which qualifies him for the Mr Gay World comp abroad.
He thinks it’s his ticket to freedom for good, but he doesn’t get the visa to go.
Every year men from right across the globe compete to be crowned Mr Gay World.
But being Syrian, despite living abroad as a refugee
entering this competition still means putting your life at risk.
The video Mahmood is referring to are clips of gay Syrian men being thrown off buildings
reportedly by ISIS militants.
The Syrian government also deems homosexuality a crime, punishable by the very least by imprisonment.
Why Mr Gay World, though?
Mahmood is a big LGBTI activist in the Arab World. After he came to Turkey, we met and he said
'You know, I have got this big dream and that is to take the first Arab man to an international beauty contest.
It's called Mr Gay World.'
He saw this as a way of defiance basically, of everything that he's lived through.
This was the only thing he knew of to make enough noise to get the media’s attention.
Although being gay there is not outlawed, there are consistent reports of harassment and abuse
in what is largely a conservative Muslim society.
There are scenes in the film where the authorities were throwing smoke bombs
they're firing bullets at a Gay Pride March.
That must have freaked you out.
Well yeah, it happens in Turkey. There are so many moments when we do get gas bombed
we’re perhaps a little bit more used to it.
Their daily life becomes so much a big part of your life. You start worrying about what will happen to them
and there were many times that I came home and thought, how the fuck am I - oops!
See that’s Turkish self-censorship for you!
What do you mean by that? Turkish self-censorship?
They wouldn't want to say fuck on TV.
We say fuck all the time on our show!
Okay, alright, fine!
Get it all out!
Do you feel there is hope for these young, Syrian gay men?
I do feel that there is hope for their lives. People create their own hope.
But hope in terms of how long it's going to take, what they want, I don't know.
Because it also depends on governments and it also depends on Turkey, it depends on Europe.
Husein is still in Istanbul for example, waiting for asylum for the last three or four years
and still nothing has happened.
In terms of them, perhaps that hope isn't as big as the way I see it.