Habit

LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Belgium face an impossible ask: prove their identity by reliving the worst things that have happened to them. For people who have hidden their queerness their whole lives just to survive, the asylum process demands the opposite: total openness, total detail, to complete strangers. Red Elephant follows those caught in this cruel contradiction, many of whom have fled deeply conservative, homophobic societies only to encounter a system that requires them to narrate their most painful experiences as evidence. The film gets close to the reality of what this process feels like; the waiting, the vulnerability, the absurdity of turning personal identity into a bureaucratic checkbox. Red Elephant is a powerful story about what gets lost when the price of safety is exposing the very thing you were taught to hide.

A documentary that provides insight into the experience of LGBTQ2IA+ migration through the lens of two queer refugees at different stages of this process in Brussels. Through an experimental collective creation method, the migrants can choose how to tell their stories. The film delves into each step of the process, as well as how the queer migrants carve out their space in the urban landscape they find themselves in. By narrating and shedding light on their origins, they make their identities, stories, and themselves visible to establish a sense of belonging in their new home.

Deepak navigates queer dating and seeks genuine connection amidst superficial modern culture, breaking cinematic walls between actor, viewer, and director.