Crossing
Two Georgian strangers embark on a road trip from Batumi to Istanbul in Levan Akin’s sympathetic trans drama.
Image courtesy of Mubi
It was with his fourth feature, 2019's And Then We Danced, that Levan Akin made his name internationally. Although I found it an appealing film and one that illustrated well Akin’s skills as a director, I was less than enthusiastic about the quality of the screenplay which was also by him. His new film, Crossing, again finds him working in both capacities and, although it seems to be getting enthusiastic reviews, I have the same reservation this time around and even more so. The aims behind the making of Crossing are admirable, the direction at its best is masterly but the writing lets it down.
In And Then We Danced Akin chose to tell a love story involving two young dancers in the National Georgian Ensemble. Crossing also starts in Georgia, this time in the Black Sea resort of Batumi. Akin takes us straight into his story with aplomb introducing us to a retired teacher named Lia (Mzia Arabuli) and to a youth, Achi played by Lucas Kankava, who lacks a mother and is unhappy in his own life. Lia calls on his family to talk about her niece, Tekla, who had left Georgia for Turkey in the hope of being more accepted there as a trans woman. Now Tekla’s mother has died and Lia is intent on fulfilling her promise to her sister that she will go to Istanbul in the hope of finding Tekla there and bringing her back. It is Achi who claims to have Tekla's address in the city and who points out that he can speak some Turkish which Lia can't, this being a way to encourage Lia to take him with her and to give him the chance that he wants to start a new life on his own.
That the two should set out together and become united in the quest for Tekla may seem a touch unlikely but Akin’s approach sweeps one along. He is aided by his actors here (Arabuli has great presence and Kankava makes a very confident debut) but the momentum of these early scenes also contributes (Akin is also one of the two editors on the film). Furthermore, when the duo starts their journey and cross into Turkey it is almost as though we are travelling with them so strong is the film’s sense of immediacy. So far so good. And in addition, there’s the fact that Crossing proceeds to portray the quarter of Istanbul where trans women, including numbers of them from Georgia, have created their own community thus giving the film the opportunity to cover unfamiliar ground. A whole range of trans women have a part to play here, all of them well acted, and one in particular, Evrim played by another newcomer, Deniz Dumanli, has a leading role in the story. She is a trans woman who is training to be a lawyer and does work that involves advising and supporting those in need including kids on the street such as Izzet (Bunyamin Deger) and Gülpembe (Sema Sultan Elekci).
Having found such potentially powerful subject matter, it is a great pity that Akin in his capacity as the writer should stumble in more ways than one. The first instance arises from the fact that the narrative is so bound up initially with Lia and Achi that it disrupts the flow drastically when without warning the film moves away from them to follow a character unknown to us. This proves to be Evrim and her role in the tale will eventually become clear, but the first half of the film contains several uncomfortable switches between her scenes and those that follow through with Lia and Achi. It is also the case that another story thread featuring the two street kids is interspersed too, although in this case it is incorporated with less sense of disruption. However, another problem lies ahead in that what happens in Istanbul in the quest for Tekla is not more dramatically eventful. The city life seen here is most convincing but Arabuli is so commanding that one longs for Lia to have more compelling scenes than the script provides for her.
As though to fill out a somewhat slender scenario, there is a conflict between Lia and Achi when he stays out overnight (they are sharing a room in a hostel). That’s not unconvincing in itself but for her to turn him away and then to chance on him in the street and to reconcile feels fictional and so does a later scene in which she seeks to be flirtatious with a Georgian businessman (Levan Gabrich Idze) believing that this stranger will help in the quest for Tekla. Similarly in the other plot line concerning Evrim there is a rather unlikely romantic involvement between her and a taxi driver (Ziya Sudancikmaz). Late on in the piece there is a change of tone too: first what has been a highly realistic work suddenly starts to incorporate songs on the soundtrack and then that leads into a finale that is stylised and leaves the viewer to unpack what is meant to be real and what imaginary.
There is quite enough good work done here for Crossing to have considerable merits yet even so the storytelling flaws prevent the film from realising anything like its full potential.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Mzia Arabuli, Lucas Kankava, Deniz Dumanli, Ziya Sudancikmaz, Bunyamin Deger, Sema Sultan Elekci, Oksan Büyük, Mehtap Ozdemir, Derya Günaydin, Levan Gabrich Idze, Bergüzar Mercan, Metin Akdemir, Tako Kurdovanidze,
Dir Levan Akin, Pro Mathilde Dedye, Screenplay Levan Akin, Ph Lisabi Fridell, Pro Des Roger Rosenberg, Ed Levan Akin and Emma Lagrelius, Costumes Linn Eklund.
French Quarter Film/Adomeit Film/Bir Film/East Riders Film/1991 Productions/Totem Films-Mubi.
106 mins. Sweden/Denmark/France/Turkey/Georgia/Norway. 2024. US and UK Rel: 19 July 2024. Cert. 15.
