Transit Havana

Transit Havana

Once a year, two plastic surgeons from Holland and Belgium fly to Havana to perform surgery on five transgendered Cuban nationals. The surgeons are invited by Mariela Castro, daughter of the president and head of the new state program for transgender care. The state helps transgender people with therapy, hormones, surgery and a new identity. Is Cuba becoming a safe haven for trans people? For more than one year, filmmakers Daniel Abma and Alex Bakker follow three subjects, Odette, Juani and Malu, and show how they deal with the reality of being transgender in Cuba. As new heroes of the revolution they still face religious intolerance, discrimination, sexism, poverty and often a life in prostitution. Meanwhile, they wait for the foreign surgeons to give them what they want most in life. Transit Havana offers a unique insight into the paradoxes of Cuba, showing the surprising side of an island in transition.