Transversale traces the harrowing journey of Chanel, Yasmine, and Glams—Cameroonian transwomen fleeing persecution in a nation where LGBT+ identities are criminalized.
Their treacherous escape through the Sahara Desert mirrors the violence they endure—im plied rape, abuse, and nature’s brutality—rendered with stark yet restrained realism. In Tunisia, they confront systemic hostility: state policies, fueled by financial incentives, block refugees from reaching Europe, trapping them in limbo. Yet amid adversity, the trio clings to resilience, fashioning humor, glamour, and empathy as acts of defiance. Chanel and Yasmine secure asylum in Canada. Meanwhile, Glams is left behind in Tunisia, her future uncertain.
Their diverging paths underscore the uneven struggle for true refuge, where fleeting triumphs coexist with enduring peril, challenging illusions of safety and acceptance in a world still rife with prejudice
Synopsis
Transversale fuses raw realism with poetic abstraction, its visual rhythm deliberate and unhurried. Handheld grit captures refugee struggles—camps, desert treks, precarious sea journeys—while stark, lingering frames force viewers to confront their reality.
Juxtaposed are surreal interludes: the recurring Salt Lake motif, a serene yet isolating void where protagonists reflect, and moody, glamorous self-portraits that reclaim their diva identities. These abstract or styled sequences clash with documentary rawness, mirroring their dual existence, battered by external cruelty yet defiant in beauty and humor.
The film’s tension lies in this visual dialogue: survival’s brutality against fleeting grace, chaos against contemplation. It dares viewers to hold both truths—the unflinching now, and the luminous self they refuse to surrender. introspection, and unyielding hope.
style & tone
style & tone
style & tone
CREATORS
Felix Kusser
Director & Producer
Bilel Haouet
Co-Producer
Production company
Monockrom
