Farewell to shame

“They say that an athlete dies twice: at the end of his career and at the end of his life. I will die three times: at the end of my career, at the end of my life and at the end of this film.” How do you live your best life when you are your own worst enemy? How do you come to terms with who you are, when what you are deep inside arouses hatred and contempt from everyone around you? How do you single-handedly change an entire system? Become a professional footballer, be a good Muslim and be a good son – these are the dreams that Ouissem has been forced to give up. Not because he wasn’t hardworking, observant, or loving enough. But because he understood that wherever he wanted to go, he would be confronted by a barrier: homophobia. Thus, the fight of a lifetime begins for Ouissem. What happened to him and continues to happen to thousands of others must not be allowed to continue. His life has become a relentless struggle against exclusion. Ouissem will fight on all fronts to break down those barriers, so that there are no longer kids who hate each other, who betray each other, and who will never know what they might have been capable of had they been given the chance to thrive in a more tolerant and inclusive environment.