A Sinner in Mecca
A Sinner in Mecca
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A Sinner in Mecca

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A Sinner in Mecca

A Sinner in Mecca is a 2015 documentary film from director Parvez Sharma (A Jihad for Love). The film chronicles Sharma's Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia as an openly gay Muslim. The film premiered at the 2015 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival to critical acclaim as well as negative controversies. The film opened in theaters in the US on September 4, 2015, and is a New York Times Critics' Pick.

A Sinner in Mecca enters a world that has been forbidden to non-Muslims for 14 centuries. Parvez Sharma documents his journey on an iPhone and two smuggled tiny cameras. On the streets of Mecca he joins 4 million other Muslim pilgrims from different traditions of Islam, fulfilling a lifelong calling for Hajj.

The film examines parts of the ideology that governs today’s Islamic extremism and what it has in common with Saudi Arabia’s Wahabi Islam. In the movie the filmmaker, an openly gay Muslim man, tries to find his own place within an Islam he has always known, an Islam that he believes bears no resemblance to Wahabi Islam.

In the movie the filmmaker sees himself as a longing Muslim, labeled an infidel, wondering if he can finally secure his place within this religion that condemns him.

A Sinner in Mecca is co-produced with Arte and ZDF in Europe.

The film is set in Saudi Arabia, India, and the United States.

A Sinner in Mecca's European premiere was at the UK's Sheffield Doc/Fest where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Award. Additional security was provided. The film won the Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary at Outfest in Los Angeles.

A Sinner in Mecca premiered at the 2015 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and had a limited US theatrical release beginning on September 4, 2015. The film played at several international festivals including CPH Dox in November 2015 and IDFA in November 2015. It won the Best Documentary Award at Image+Nation in Montreal in December, 2015. The film was among those in consideration for an Academy Award on October 23, 2015.

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