Boxoffice Pro - January 2020

PHOTO BY LISABI FRIDELL, COURTESY OF MUSIC BOX FILMS.
We met with Akin in New York just
after the film’s screening at the annual
gay film festival and 10 days before its
premiere in Tbilisi, where hundreds of
protesters tried to block the entrance
to the cinema, and smoke bombs and
firecrackers were thrown.
Akin has received a markedly different
response to the film in other parts of
the world. “Both in Sweden and when
we showed the film in Mill Valley [in
California], older women have come up
to me and told me, ‘You know, those
[sex] scenes were really erotic to me. I’ve
seen many gay scenes, but I’ve never felt
that they were so erotic and real.’ Another
woman in Sweden told me that she’d
never seen a scene with same sex, and it
wasn’t until after that she was like, ‘Oh
yeah, they were the same sex. It felt so
natural.’ I don’t know what it is about
them that makes people feel that way—
maybe they’re very organic somehow.”
Reflecting on his heritage, Akin says, “I
always had a rose-tinted view of Georgia
growing up, because of my parents. You
can feel in the film that I love the culture
and the music and the dance and everything,
but there are also a lot of problems
there. Working there as much as I did, I
could see Georgia in a different way. I also
sort of lived through the main character,
ANA MAKHARADZE AND ANA JAVAKISHVILI
experiencing first love again through him.
I’m 40 now, so it brought up a lot of
emotions. One of the themes is how youth
is lost on the young and how quickly it
can change. One day you’re happy dancing
to Abba on a balcony, and you don’t know
what you’re saying goodbye to because it
happens so fast.”
Akin sees And Then We Danced as a
major turning point in his career. “Back
in Sweden, before I made this film, I
had done a lot of TV series and I did
two movies, but none have been as
personal. This was like a rejuvenation of
my filmmaking. I worked from a place
only of curiosity and I didn’t decide a
lot of things. It was a different process
from how you usually make films, where
everything is about planning. And since
I couldn’t plan, which in the beginning
freaked me out, I had to let go of all my
control issues and just go with the flow
and see what I was served and use that
and be creative with it. But that was actually
a really fun way to work. It gave me
energy, because from one day to the next
I didn’t know what I was going to get.”
Asked about his experience as a Georgian
working in the Swedish film industry,
Akin responds, “For all intents and
purposes, I am Swedish, because I was
born and raised in Sweden. So it’s really
not something I think about. But I’m also
Georgian, and I have that temperament.
I’m a little different from your regular
Swede. It’s a good question.”
Still, he concedes, “Early on when I
was applying to film schools, I never got
into the main film school in Sweden. I
applied two times, and I felt like they
wanted to pigeonhole me—they wanted
me to be this foreign kid from the hood
or something. And when I didn’t match
their mold, they didn’t know what to do
with me. … I’ve felt that many times in
my life. Unfortunately, Sweden is becoming
in many ways more and more racist.
One of our biggest parties is former
Nazis—I mean, they still are probably
Nazis, but now they pretend they’re not.
It’s insane. In the latest polling, they were
like the second biggest party in Sweden.
It’s so scary. I’m very sad.”
He continues, “Sweden has changed
in the last 10 years, and that’s something
that was really on my mind when I was
making this film. I wanted to make a film
about tradition and culture in a hopeful
way, a nonaggressive way. Just tell people
that nobody can decide for you what
your tradition or your culture should be.
That’s not up to these right-wing people:
Oh, if you’re a Georgian dancer, if you’re
a Georgian, you need to tick these boxes.
It’s the same in Sweden: Oh, you need to
own a cat and love cinnamon buns and
you need to celebrate Christmas, otherwise
you’re not Swedish and you don’t love our
culture. And I want to say, I can be Swedish
in any way I want, as I can be Georgian
in any way I want. There are Georgians
telling me that I’m not a real Georgian
too, and that’s not up to anybody else to
decide. I feel like a lot of us have left that
conversation to the crazy bigots and let
them hijack that. And I want to be like,
no, I’m taking it back. I am proud to be
Swedish, I’m going to hang the Swedish
flag, and I’m gonna talk about what it
really means to be Swedish. Because what
it really means to be Swedish is to be open
and curious. And I think that conversation
can probably be had here in America too,
from what I understand.”
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12/18/19 2:40 PM