Genre

Synopsis

Humans Are Shapes (HAS) follows a pair of aliens who have come to earth to embody and experience what they perceived as the most profound example of human love. After stalking and observing two transgender sisters (“Sepi” and “Sepehr”) for months, the aliens had found their sisterly bond and enigmatic queer kinship to be ideal for this goal. The aliens possessed their bodies, assumed their identities, and emulated their relationship in what comes to be a type of supernatural roleplay. However, contrary to what the sisters’ relationship actually once was, the aliens themselves begin to develop romantic feelings for each other, which isn't possible for them to act upon as they had made a pact to not violate humanity’s morality codes—in this case meaning to avoid incest. The alien inside “Sepi” also begins coming to terms with the precarity of inhabiting a transgender body, and worries for “Sepehr’s” safety as well, who had recently been a victim of transphobic violence on public transit. 

After the alien inside “Sepi” confesses her romantic feelings for the alien inside “Sepehr” and finds that it's mutual, “Sepi” explains her plan to possess a new body—a cis male bodybuilder (Ryan) who has shown sexual interest in her after being a fan of her radio show. By having “Sepi” change bodies, the aliens can circumvent the taboo of what’s possible in their current forms, as the two had once vowed to not violate human morality codes. Additionally, through an alien’s rudimentary understanding of physiological advantage, “Sepi” believes that being in a stronger body can allow her to better protect “Sepehr” and herself from harm. “Sepi” then meets up with Ryan for a sexual encounter where the alien migrates into a new host body in an extraordinary pursuit of love and survival.