Paper Dolls

Director: Tomer Heymann
Israel, 2006, 80', HDD, color
Hebrew, English with Turkish subtitles

Paper Dolls is a documentary film which explores changing patterns of global immigration and expanding notions of family through the prism of a community of Filipino trans sex workers who live illegally in Israel. Cast out by their families because of their sexual orientations, these people work 6 days a week as live-in, 24 hours a day care givers for elderly orthodox Jewish men, in order to earn money to send to their families in the Philippines that had rejected them. On their one free night per week, they pursue their own personal dreams as drag performers in the group they call The Paper Dolls in the relative freedom of cosmopolitan Tel Aviv. Despite having to deal with often harsh working conditions, threats by street criminals, fear of terrorist bombings and the constant peril of deportation, The Paper Dolls demonstrate a rare generosity of spirit, humanity and lust for life.