India, Nov. 5 -- You've noted earlier that you had the story but not the characters to tell it, and the character came to you when you saw the photo exhibition by Pepa Hristova in Sofia, dedicated to the 'sworn virgins of Albania'. What struck you that made you invent this character, Bekija/Matija?

I'm interested in the female and male energies in people, and how they reflect on the body itself. How the body manifests our inner worlds.

I saw the photo exhibition of the 'sworn virgins': women who look like men and who live as men. I was struck by how the body responded to this external environment. It wasn't a gender transition - something coming from the inside - but a social one; it came from the outside. Through Bekija/Matija, I wante...