“Crossing”, Interview with director Levan Akin

February 15, 2024

Levan Akin, director of Crossing: “This film is my tribute to solidarity”

“Crossing”, Interview with director Levan Akin Chiara Nicoletti

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After shaking things up in his country, Georgia, with his amazing “And then we danced“, presented in Cannes at the Quinzaine in 2019, Georgian director (based in Sweden) Levan Akin is at the 74th Berlinale to open the Panorama section with “Crossing“.

Loosely based on a true story about this grandfather being the only supporting person in his trans granddaughter’s life, “Crossing” is about a woman Lia, on a journey to find her trans niece in Turkey. The film as about intergenerational dialogue and to quote Akin “his tribute to solidarity” as his characters are like a door into different worlds that beautifully and for some people unexpectedbly, meet.

Crossing is also a love letter to Instabul, a city that Levan Akin have known his whole life as he spent every summer of his childhood there. The director says: “It is also a place where all kinds of people and circumstances exist, so it’s easy to find a space of acceptance there”.

Plot

Lia, a retired teacher living in Georgia, made a promise to find out what happened to her long lost niece Tekla. When Lia learns from Achi, a neighbor, that Tekla might be living in Turkey, they set off together to find her. In Istanbul they discover a beautiful city full of connections and possibilities - but looking for someone who never intended to be found is harder than they thought. Until they meet Evrim, a lawyer fighting for trans rights. As Lia and Achi weave their way through the city’s backstreets, Tekla starts to feel closer than ever.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

Guest

Levan Akin