To be a Muslim and to be gay — it’s hard to imagine two more incompatible identities for one person to have. “A Jihad For Love” is a courageous if low-end documentary tackling this fascinating, tortured intersection.
Involuntary outlaws are caught in a culture that forbids their very existence. They exist under the threat of not just complete social and/or family ostracism but also a state-sanctioned death penalty from at least one of the theocratic governments in the Islamic world.
For finding a way to expose this fraught topic at all, filmmaker Parvez Sharma deserves credit. But it was obviously difficult to get subjects to come out of the closet publicly and testify to their persecution. The filmmaker obscures many of the faces and dispenses with specifics in order to protect these victims of what may be the most virulent strain of homophobia that exists.
The protective measures, unfortunately, limit “Jihad’s” dramatic impact. Also, because it must have been impossible to interview any of the higher religious or political officials who are perpetrating the authorized bigotry and because the Islamic population is so vast and diversified, Sharma was unable to explore the issue in a linear or comprehensive fashion.
Instead, the filmmaker offers a random collection of testimonials from gay men (mostly) and a few lesbians with devout Muslim backgrounds. Traveling from South Africa to Egypt, Iran to Turkey, France to India, the film presents the viewpoints of the mostly melancholy, sometimes colorful individuals who are trying to express the conflicting parts within themselves.
In some cases, they are hoping just to live and maybe even to live free. The story of four Iranians is especially moving here. Thousands have reportedly been executed for homosexual acts in Iran over the last 30 years. So this group decides to escape to Turkey and apply for refugee status in the West.
An interpretation of one section of the Koran condemns homosexuality as a sin. But, to paraphrase one gay believer in the film, he says he wants to find a way to love God and to be able to love another man at the same time. Indeed, “A Jihad For Love” is about the struggle to express that most basic human emotion authentically. So despite the film’s inferior production values and unsystematic approach, it touches on what makes us all the same in the end — despite creed or orientation.
(Quick info: 3 out of 5 Stars; Director — Parvez Sharma; Not Rated; Running Time — 81 minutes)
