Indonesia is the country with the biggest population of Muslims in the world. Even though the local transgenders, the "waria", seem to be tolerated by the public, they actually live on the fringe of society. Tales of the Waria tells the story of Tiara, Mami Ria, Suharni and Firnman (who have all refused to change sex as demanded by Muslim precepts), and their tragic struggle to assert their identity and their desire for love. Starting from the stories of the four waria characters, analyzing the complexity of their lives, filming in night clubs and beauty salons, American director Kathy Huang deals with topics which are often ignored by western filmmakers. She explores the relationship between Islam and transgenders, the socio-cultural situation of Indonesia, the issue of AIDS and the lives and struggles of those who have chosen to be neither men nor women. 　　Biofilmography - Kathy Huang 　　Kathy Huang studied Documentary Film Production at Stanford University. She began her career as a director with the short documentary Scribble's Creations (2004), inspired by her experience of teaching young people at risk, and set on the border between Mexico and the US. She directed Still Standing and Jaywalking in 2005, then Night Visions (2006) and Miss Chinatown U.S.A.(2007), which were shown at important international festivals like the Tribeca and Silverdocs and presented on American public television networks. Tales of the Waria is her first feature film.

In September 1940, after seven years of exile, Walter Benjamin crosses the Pyrenees in a desperate attempt to escape the Nazis. According to the official version, Walter Benjamin did make it across the French-Spanish border successfully. But when he arrived in the Catalan town of Portbou, a sudden change in legislation impeded his entry into Spain and he was obliged to spend the night at a local hotel under the close vigilance of three guards, whose orders were to deport him the following morning. In utter despair, Benjamin took his own life, swallowing and overdose of morphine. The local doctor, however, declared it a natural death and Benjamin was given a Catholic burial in the municipal cemetery, under a wrong name. Did the doctor conceal some hidden cause of Benjamin's death? Was there really a change of legislation? Was Walter Benjamin aware that Portbou was a pro-Franco town virtually occupied by the Nazis? Who Killed Walter Benjamin... reaches for answers among the suspicious circumstances of his death. Giving at the same time, a portrait of a frontier town anchored between two fronts, constant witness of evasion, persecution and false hopes. Who Killed Walter Benjamin... not just a reconstruction of a death but the living portrait of the scene of the crime.

Indonesia is the country with the biggest population of Muslims in the world. Even though the local transgenders, the "waria", seem to be tolerated by the public, they actually live on the fringe of society. Tales of the Waria tells the story of Tiara, Mami Ria, Suharni and Firnman (who have all refused to change sex as demanded by Muslim precepts), and their tragic struggle to assert their identity and their desire for love. Starting from the stories of the four waria characters, analyzing the complexity of their lives, filming in night clubs and beauty salons, American director Kathy Huang deals with topics which are often ignored by western filmmakers. She explores the relationship between Islam and transgenders, the socio-cultural situation of Indonesia, the issue of AIDS and the lives and struggles of those who have chosen to be neither men nor women. 　　Biofilmography - Kathy Huang 　　Kathy Huang studied Documentary Film Production at Stanford University. She began her career as a director with the short documentary Scribble's Creations (2004), inspired by her experience of teaching young people at risk, and set on the border between Mexico and the US. She directed Still Standing and Jaywalking in 2005, then Night Visions (2006) and Miss Chinatown U.S.A.(2007), which were shown at important international festivals like the Tribeca and Silverdocs and presented on American public television networks. Tales of the Waria is her first feature film.

In September 1940, after seven years of exile, Walter Benjamin crosses the Pyrenees in a desperate attempt to escape the Nazis. According to the official version, Walter Benjamin did make it across the French-Spanish border successfully. But when he arrived in the Catalan town of Portbou, a sudden change in legislation impeded his entry into Spain and he was obliged to spend the night at a local hotel under the close vigilance of three guards, whose orders were to deport him the following morning. In utter despair, Benjamin took his own life, swallowing and overdose of morphine. The local doctor, however, declared it a natural death and Benjamin was given a Catholic burial in the municipal cemetery, under a wrong name. Did the doctor conceal some hidden cause of Benjamin's death? Was there really a change of legislation? Was Walter Benjamin aware that Portbou was a pro-Franco town virtually occupied by the Nazis? Who Killed Walter Benjamin... reaches for answers among the suspicious circumstances of his death. Giving at the same time, a portrait of a frontier town anchored between two fronts, constant witness of evasion, persecution and false hopes. Who Killed Walter Benjamin... not just a reconstruction of a death but the living portrait of the scene of the crime.

穆森马克马巴夫是伊朗赫赫有名的大导演，因此让一个失业兼影迷的年轻人产生了冒充他的愿望，并以穆森·马克马巴夫的名誉向富翁阿汗赫借了一笔钱。若要人不知除非己莫为，东窗事发后，冒充者很快被逮捕并面临申诉。阿巴斯知道此事后，产生了浓烈兴趣，遂进行了跟踪式调查。在采访中，年轻的冒充者很是后悔，他一方面承认了自己骗钱的行径，另一方面也表达了对电影的热爱。最后，富翁决定不再追求年轻人的责任，撤销了对他的控告。更令人惊喜的是，由于这件事，年轻人居然见到了穆森·马克马巴夫本人。在了解一切之后，阿巴斯为此感叹不已，遂根据这则真人真事改编制作了电影《特写》。

德黑兰，记者法拉兹曼德前去报道年轻人霍塞·萨布齐恩因诈骗被捕的事件。原来，失业的油漆工萨布齐恩是一个影迷，他自称是著名导演穆赫辛·马克马尔巴夫，取得阔绰的阿汉卡赫一家信任，向他们借钱拍片。事发后，萨布齐恩被抓。导演阿巴斯·基亚罗斯塔米就此案展开了纪录片似的跟踪调查，他采访了警察， 阿汉卡赫全家，以及萨布齐恩本人。 　　审讯过程中，萨布齐恩为骗取了阿汉卡赫一家的感情而后悔，但他说之所以这样做是因为对艺术的热爱，如果有钱，他真地会拍摄自己的电影。而且，假扮导演马克马尔巴夫赋予了他自信。最后，原告阿汉卡赫家撤销了起诉，而萨布齐恩也见到了真正的马克马尔巴夫，后者骑小摩托带这个年轻人重访阿汉卡赫。

The French-language film will be shot with close-up camera angles and follow Huppert’s character as she takes on the role of successive female characters through several eras from the 17th century to the modern day. They will include a peasant in 1948, an early 20th-century emigrant, a witch consumed by flames in the late 17th century, a mystic and a woman navigating the challenges of war. 　　Huppert told Screen the origins of the project lie with Medea Miracle, after which Bernardi “wanted to make another film that was just a close up of my face, using the face as a landscape, the face as a mechanism through which to tell a wider story about feminism through the centuries.”

The French-language film will be shot with close-up camera angles and follow Huppert’s character as she takes on the role of successive female characters through several eras from the 17th century to the modern day. They will include a peasant in 1948, an early 20th-century emigrant, a witch consumed by flames in the late 17th century, a mystic and a woman navigating the challenges of war. 　　Huppert told Screen the origins of the project lie with Medea Miracle, after which Bernardi “wanted to make another film that was just a close up of my face, using the face as a landscape, the face as a mechanism through which to tell a wider story about feminism through the centuries.”