Paper Dolls (film)

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Paper Dolls (Bubot Niyar)
Directed by	Tomer Heymann
Produced by	Claudia Levin Stanley Buchthal Tomer Heymann
Written by	Tomer Heymann
Music by	Eli Soorani
Cinematography	Itai Raziel
Editing by	Lavi Ben Gal
Distributed by	Strand Releasing
Release date(s)	6 September 2006 USA
Running time	80 minutes
Language	Hebrew Tagalog English (English subtitles)
IMDb profile

Paper Dolls (Bubot Niyar) is a 2006 documentary by Israeli director Tomer Heymann.

The movie, shot on videotape, is about a group of transsexuals from the Philippines who have emigrated to Israel to work as home care providers. During the day they work as home attendants for elderly Israelis; at night many perform in Tel Aviv nightclubs.

The persons profiled in Paper Dolls are in various stages of gender transition and are referred to by their feminine names. Many came to Israel in the wake of the intifada to fill jobs that had been handled by Palestinians. They express mixed attitudes toward Israel, which they find less sexually repressive than the Philippines but also more materialistic and bureaucratic.

The Filipinos are ineligible for Israeli citizenship and their visas can be revoked if they lose their jobs. Most have obtained fairly high fluency in Hebrew and have learned to ignore the occasional stares on the way to and from their jobs in Orthodox neighborhoods.