Tiara, one of the film's main characters, applies make-up. Photograph by Kathy Huang.

I know very little about Islam, not much more about Indonesia, and absolutely nothing about being transgendered. These shortcomings didn’t prevent me from relating to Tales of the Waria, however, Kathy Huang’s documentary about four transgendered women in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population. Filmed in the cinematic coastal region of South Sulawesi, this sumptuously shot narrative follows four waria — a mash-up of wanita, which means woman, and pria, which means man — in their respective quests for love.

A photograph of a waria in an article about a beauty pageant proved the impetus for the film. “She was so beautiful,” says the director about the glimpsed waria, “that I wanted to find out more. I wanted to understand how a waria could exist in Indonesia, which is so heavily Muslim. I wanted to know how the religion affected them.”

Not very much, it turns out. “It’s not a big deal,” Huang laughs, a little ruefully. Indonesia accepts its waria, who describe themselves as men who have the soul, instinct, and feelings of women. They aren’t interested in sex-change operations because that would transgress Muslim teachings. “We believe that we were born as men and must return to God as men,” explains Tiara, one of the characters in the film.

With the question that piqued her filmmaking interests summarily dismissed, Huang instead focused on the story the warias she encountered wished to tell: of romantic longing and fulfillment. “They’re love stories,” says Huang simply about the woven vignettes that make up Tales of the Waria.

photo by Irfan Ady Sastera

Love stories — we know those. The older lover jilted for the younger one. The family that insists its son gives up his wild ways and settles down with the girl next door. The maiden who toils to support her loutish oaf. The familiarity of such narratives offers a common point where viewers might meet the distant, foreign characters seen on screen. No, I’ve never been to Indonesia. No, I’m not Muslim. No, I’m not transgendered. Yes, I’ve been bored, lonely, and horny. Yes, I’ve grown apart from the person who knows me best. Yes, I’ve been dumped unceremoniously. The journey the viewer takes from “no” to “yes” travels a route that connects the normal to the so-called abnormal before landing us at a place of understanding.

It’s a testament to Huang’s storytelling skills that Tales of the Waria gets us there. What, in lesser hands, could’ve been a hot filmic mess of politics, religion, and ugly –isms too obvious to name is instead a compelling documentary about the real lives of people not unlike you or me.

Catch it 6:30 p.m., Thursday, August 11, at Clearview Chelsea, where the director will be on hand for a Q&A afterward. Miss it this time and your next chance won’t be until October when the documentary joins the Asian Film Festival in San Diego. Thursday’s viewing is part of the first LGBTQ evening ever held by New York’s Asian American International Film Festival, which ends Sunday, so come show your support and let festival organizers know you want another night like it next year.