Visiting Istanbul, you can’t help but notice all of the cats: The Turkish metropolis is swarming with strays, some gorgeous and friendly, others haggard and more stand-offish. Entire films have been made about the phenomenon (of which “Kedi” was an especially popular example). But what of the countless other souls — the human ones — who also live on the margins of this modern city? They too are invisible until noticed. But if you look closely, it becomes impossible to unsee the homeless children and street sellers, sex workers and immigrants, many of them struggling to survive.
With “Crossing,” writer-director Levan Akin wants to open our eyes to the easily overlooked. After earning international acclaim with Cannes-selected queer drama “And Then We Danced,” Akin makes a calculated choice to raise awareness of the trans community in Istanbul, but he does so through representation rather than manipulation. “Crossing” tells the engaging if...
With “Crossing,” writer-director Levan Akin wants to open our eyes to the easily overlooked. After earning international acclaim with Cannes-selected queer drama “And Then We Danced,” Akin makes a calculated choice to raise awareness of the trans community in Istanbul, but he does so through representation rather than manipulation. “Crossing” tells the engaging if...
- 2/15/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
In “Crossing,” the new film from “And Then We Danced” director Levan Akin, the earthy spirit of Italian icon Anna Magnani is channeled by not one but two actresses who resemble her. There’s Mzia Arabuli as Lia, a retired schoolteacher on a journey from Batumi in Georgia to Istanbul in Turkey to find her missing trans niece, and Deniz Dumanli as Evrim, the trans Ngo lawyer the movie dupes us into thinking is Lia’s niece. The two women are as far apart on the joie de vivre spectrum as any pair could be — Lia has calcified into an emotionless stone who gives away nothing, while Evrim lives freely and sexually liberated in an otherwise LGBTQ-challenged country — yet “Crossing” movingly bridges the space between them as Lia gets closer to locating her niece with the help a Gen Z Georgian teenager named Achi (Lucas Kankava).
That these two women look so alike,...
That these two women look so alike,...
- 2/15/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Art house streaming platform Mubi has picked up all rights in North America, the U.K., Germany and Latin America for Crossing, the new feature from Swedish director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced).
Mubi snatched up Crossing ahead of this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere, opening Berlin’s Panorama sidebar.
The film follows Lia, a retired teacher living in Batumi, Georgia, who sets out to fulfill her recently deceased sister’s last wish: to find Tekla, her long-lost daughter. The road trip takes her to Istanbul where she meets up with Evrim, a trans rights lawyer who might be the key to finding Lia’s niece. Mzia Arabuli, Lucas Kankava and Deniz Dumanli star. The film was produced by Sweden’s French Quarter Film in co-production with Rmv and Svt in Sweden, Adomeit Film of Denmark, France’s Easy Riders Films, Bir...
Mubi snatched up Crossing ahead of this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where it will have its world premiere, opening Berlin’s Panorama sidebar.
The film follows Lia, a retired teacher living in Batumi, Georgia, who sets out to fulfill her recently deceased sister’s last wish: to find Tekla, her long-lost daughter. The road trip takes her to Istanbul where she meets up with Evrim, a trans rights lawyer who might be the key to finding Lia’s niece. Mzia Arabuli, Lucas Kankava and Deniz Dumanli star. The film was produced by Sweden’s French Quarter Film in co-production with Rmv and Svt in Sweden, Adomeit Film of Denmark, France’s Easy Riders Films, Bir...
- 1/18/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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