Boxoffice Pro - January 2020

Akin says that when he embarked on
the project, “I didn’t know what it was
going to become. The genesis of the idea
came from a pride parade in Tbilisi that
was attacked by a mob. That prompted
me to go to Georgia—I wanted to check
the situation out and see how it could be
as bad as it is. It actually surprised me and
also deeply offended me as a Georgian
that this could happen. I interviewed a lot
of young Georgians, both LGBTQ and
also anybody who would basically talk to
me about life in Georgia, and they would
add me on Instagram and we would
become friends. And then the algorithm
suggested Levan Gelbakhiani, like, ‘You
might know this person’—it’s one good
thing that came from social media. And
I looked at him and I saw that he was a
dancer, and by then I’d already thought
that dance would be a nice way to showcase
the traditions of Georgia.”
Akin set up a meeting and found
Gelbakhiani “very magnetic, but he was
also very shut off—he’s quite shy.” The
director filmed a teaser with the novice
actor to attract financing, “and it turned
out pretty OK. But a lot of the comments
were that he was guarding himself.
I decided that I wanted to go with him
anyway, because I really liked him.” As
Akin continued to research the film, “we
got to know each other very closely, and
by the time we started filming, there was
really no filter between us—it was almost
like the camera wasn’t there. But he’s not
a professional actor, he’s a dancer. So I
had to work with him in different ways
to get the performance—a lot of the
emotions that you see on-screen are really
in the moment. One of the challenges
for me was that if he did a good take of
something, I could never get that again.
It was always different.” In November,
this first-time actor was nominated for a
European Film Award.
Akin’s other lead, Valishvili, had some
theater experience but had never made a
film before. “He’s like an old Hollywood
star, like Errol Flynn or something,” Akin
says. “I hope that he will get some offers,
because his English is flawless. He taught
DIRECTOR LEVAN AKIN
himself by watching YouTube. So sweet.”
Akin recalls that Valishvili was the
third actor to test opposite Gelbakhiani,
“and I saw that Levan sort of blushed
when they met. When I saw the blush,
I was like, OK, this is good chemistry; I
found the other guy.”
Did his actors have any reservations
about taking on these groundbreaking
roles? “Not Bachi—he told me later that
he thought about it and asked his friends,
but Levan had more reservations. The
first time my casting agent called him, he
didn’t even want to take the meeting—he
was like, no, I’m not interested. And then
after we met, he was intrigued. Then he
was really engaged in the process as soon
as he said yes. He talked to his parents
and to his friends, and they were like,
if you want to do it, we support you.
So there are people in Georgia who are
open-minded and understand that it’s just
a film.”
But there remain many close-minded
people in that country. “It was a very
challenging shoot because we filmed
secretly—we didn’t tell people what we
were doing. We had an alternate story.
We would say that we were making a
movie about a French tourist who comes
to Georgia and falls in love with the
culture. And inevitably some people
found out what we were doing, and we
had to have security guards on set and we
got death threats. It was really intense—
we would lose locations just the night
before, and I would have to rethink. So
this script never really had a beginning,
a middle, and an end—I just threw
everything else away because I had to be
so flexible. Everything in the film is based
on the interviews I did with people. All
of the stories are true. A lot of the people
in the film are real people that I met in
my research. So it’s almost like a hybrid
film—even though it has this linear or
classical story, it’s very organic the way
the film grew.”
Ironically, Akin notes, “Georgia is one
of the most progressive countries in the
region when it comes to LGBTQ issues
because there are laws protecting them,
but they’re not implemented. It’s more
like a cosmetic thing—it feels like they
have them in place because they should
have them and they want to come closer
to the West and the E.U., and they get
E.U. funding and stuff. But when it
actually comes down to it, it’s one of the
most homophobic countries in the world.
However, there is a parallel world with
a gay subculture. The people in Georgia
are so divided: You have the young
generation who grew up on the internet
and who have different news sources and
other references, and then you have their
parents’ generation, who are more like the
Soviet mentality, and then the Church is
very strong.
“This film has hit like a bomb there.
When we premiered in Cannes, nobody
knew about the movie, and then the
trailer released and so many people are
supporting it. Media has been super-supportive
of the movie in Georgia. I get so
many messages from kids, not just from
Georgia but from Poland and Uzbekistan,
kids who watched the trailer. After our
screening in Zurich, a girl came up to us
shaking—she’d flown all the way from
Russia to see the film. So it’s really making
a difference, which is so surreal to me.”
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