A movie about transgender women fighting for acceptance in Tonga hopes to bring about change in the Pacific island nation.
Leitis in Waiting, which has its European premiere at the Festival of Commonwealth Film in London on Sunday, is the story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga leitis, an intrepid group of indigenous transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom.
Tonga is one of 36 Commonwealth members that criminalise same-sex activity and cross-dressing under colonial-era laws in, according to the Commonwealth Equality Network.
Although rarey enforced, LGBT issues remain taboo, Mataele, who is in London to promote the film, told Thomson Reuters.
"I believe that the importance of having this movie is to be able to change the minds of people," said the 54-year-old, who has close ties to the Tongan royal family. "I (also) hope it will take the message to the British government - or even straight to Queen Elizabeth - that they are the ones that brought that colonial law we are suffering from to the Pacific and they should do something about it."
Watch the trailer below:
Leitis in Waiting, which has its European premiere at the Festival of Commonwealth Film in London on Sunday, is the story of Joey Mataele and the Tonga leitis, an intrepid group of indigenous transgender women fighting a rising tide of religious fundamentalism and intolerance in their South Pacific Kingdom.
Tonga is one of 36 Commonwealth members that criminalise same-sex activity and cross-dressing under colonial-era laws in, according to the Commonwealth Equality Network.
Although rarey enforced, LGBT issues remain taboo, Mataele, who is in London to promote the film, told Thomson Reuters.
"I believe that the importance of having this movie is to be able to change the minds of people," said the 54-year-old, who has close ties to the Tongan royal family. "I (also) hope it will take the message to the British government - or even straight to Queen Elizabeth - that they are the ones that brought that colonial law we are suffering from to the Pacific and they should do something about it."
