The First Lady

An urgent and daring documentary that champions human rights in the face of repression, The First Lady is a profile of Efrat Tilma, a transgender woman who fled Israel in the 1960s when, as a teenager, she was harassed and threatened by the police for wearing women’s clothes. Decades later, Tilma would go on to become a pioneering Israeli activist for LGBTQ+ rights as the country’s first transgender volunteer in the police force. Now, at 75, Tilma tries to wind her own way through the political and bureaucratic complexities of contemporary Israel, confronting discrimination and speaking out about the aggression and intimidation of the more conservative government—and representing the humanity of the endangered trans community.