Ayse Toprak

In focusing his attention on the competitors of Mr Gay Syria, director Ayse Toprak shatters the one-dimensional meaning of “refugee”. Using the pageant as a means of escape from political persecution, the organiser Mahmoud — already given asylum in Berlin — hopes to offer the winner a chance to travel as well as bring international attention to the life-threatening situations faced by LGBT Syrians.

As a teenager, Mutlu Kaya, a Kurdish woman from southeastern Turkey, was a promising singer. She was on the brink of breaking through to the final of Turkey’s Got Talent in 2015 when she was gunned down by a man whose marriage proposal she had refused. She suffered life-threatening injuries.