Crossing
Levan Akin presents a push-and-pull story of empathy, rectification and the unexpected expanse that can be found in seemingly dead ends
Crossing, from And Then We Danced director Levan Akin, confronts the deeply human way we fail the ones we love.
Set in Istanbul, the film follows Ms Lia, a stubborn and solitary Georgian woman played by Mzia Arabuli, as she sets out to fulfil her late sister’s dying wish: locate her estranged daughter, who's trans. On her journey to find her niece Tekla and bring her home, she is opened up by experience and finds a surrogate family in the form of a directionless young man, a young female lawyer and street vendor children.
Crossing's opening line – “Both Georgian and Turkish are gender-neutral languages; they make no distinctions of grammatical gender” – is a poignant and pointed starting point. Our characters’ very words do not dignify invented differences, so why should their actions? We see the unstable, bereft logic of prejudice play out. Ms Lia initially despairs after seeing her niece’s living and working conditions: "This is the life she chose?" She is plainly told, "I hardly think it was a choice."
Crossing’s cinematography also complements its raw experience: natural light makes even dirt on car windows take on an emotional dimension; drunken baklava appears decadent; and, as they allow themselves to dance, perspiring foreheads and flushed faces signal freedom. Crossing deals with duty, enlightenment and new possibilities. We witness various stages of rejection and embrace. We see territory and relationships being reclaimed from the pain initially imbued in them.
Released 19 Jul by MUBI; certificate 15