April 2020 | Sight&Sound | 43
him to be in love and happy and full of warmth. I wanted
the film to be hopeful. I could never bear to make the film
if something bad had happened to that character.” Gel-
bakhiani, whom Akin discovered on Instagram, is superb
in his film debut, as is Giorgi Tsereteli as Merab’s boorish
brother, whose complex relationship with the protagonist
leads to some of the film’s most powerful moments.
Despite the film’s criticism of entrenched prejudices,
Akin has described And Then We Danced as a love letter
to Georgian culture and tradition, a country where a
large proportion of children learn to dance after school.
The director describes dance as one of five central forms
of Georgian culture, alongside polyphonic singing, the
church, wine and food. “I wanted the film to be a warm
embrace rather than a punch in the stomach. I didn’t
want it to feel angry and to be an attack on tradition and
culture, because I love tradition and culture. I don’t want
the bigots to hijack my tradition and my culture. Nobody
has a right to tell anyone what boxes you need to check
to say you’re Georgian.”
And Then We Danced is a sensory feast, with Lisabi
Fridell’s cinematography emphasising the colours, the
flavours and the visual splendour of the dance perfor-
mances, and the region. Scenes featuring a close-up of a
plate of steaming khinkali (Georgian dumplings) in a bus-
tling restaurant or a group of youths woozily listening
to a haunting polyphonic chorus as they recover from
hangovers are highly evocative. By the end credits, the
viewer may feel like they have actually visited Tbilisi.
While the film evokes the beauty and the skill of the
traditional Georgian dance and music scene in Tbilisi,
Akin was also keen to show the city’s vibrant youth cul-
ture, with an exhilarating, joyous scene in which Merab
is taken for a wild night on the town with a new friend:
“Bassiani is a club in Tbilisi that has become world-fa-
mous. It’s a venue that is important to Tbilisi’s youth cul-
ture and a queer-friendly space. It’s where you can let your
hair down and do what you want. I really wanted to have
Bassiani in the film, as it’s where [the characters] would go
that night. I thought it would be a nice way for Merab to
discover new sides to himself and his dancing.” In keep-
ing with Akin’s desire to show different sides to Tbilisi, the
next scene features a cheerfully bawdy encounter with a
group of queer sex workers by one of the city’s parks.
Ultimately, however dispiriting the protests have been,
Akin is delighted to have reached audiences and helped
to change attitudes. Despite the coverage, And Then We
Danced is a romantic and defiantly celebratory film, filled
with humour and energy. A huge fan of John Hughes, the
director of The Breakfast Club (1985) and Ferris Bueller’s Day
Off (1986), Akin compares his film to 80s Hollywood films
about young lives. “I love 80s teen movies. It’s my present
to Eastern Europe,” he says. “With And Then We Danced,
they get their own 80s teen movie, as there’s never been
one from Georgia.” A key scene in the film even seems
to echo and subsequently subvert the climax of Adrian
Lyne’s Flashdance (1983), a glossy, very 80s blockbuster
that’s also about a marginalised dancer. How have Geor-
gian queer teens reacted to And Then We Danced? “Many
young people write to me through social media on a daily
basis thanking me for the film and for giving them a voice
- not only from Georgia, but from many Eastern Euro-
pean countries. And actually from all over the world.”
REX FEATURES (1)And Then We Danced is released in UK cinemas on 13 March
QUEER AS FOLK: FIVE LGBT+ TV DRAMAS
AND FILMS THAT CAUSED CONTROVERSY
Two o f U s
Roger Tonge (UK, 1988)
This sweet romance between two male
teens, made for the BBC, fell victim to
the noxious Section 28, implemented by
Thatcher’s government, forbidding the
‘promotion’ of homosexuality. The film,
in which the boys flee their homophobic
hometown for the coast, was re-edited
with an ending in which one of the boys
returns to his girlfriend. Section 28 was
repealed in the early 2000s across the
UK, although its ideology breathed again
in the recent demonstrations against
LGBT-inclusive education in Birmingham.
Farewell My Concubine
Chen Kaige (China, 1993)
Chen Kaige’s epic Palme d’Or-winning
masterpiece, following two male opera
actors across decades of tumultuous
history from the early years of the Republic
of China to the Cultural Revolution, earned
the ire of the censors. It was banned in
mainland China, for its portrayal of a
harrowing period of history, its depiction
of suicide and the homosexuality of Leslie
Cheung’s protagonist. The international
outcry that ensued, as China bid to
host the Olympics, led to an
overturn of the ban.
Fire
Deepa Mehta (India, 1996)
Hindu extremists stormed
cinemas in New Delhi and
Mumbai which showed Deepa
Mehta’s powerful melodrama,
starring Nandita Das and
Shabana Azmi as two
unhappily married women
who fall in love. Protesters ripped down
posters, threw Molotov cocktails at the
screens and stirred up violence in the
streets. The attacks kickstarted a national
conversation about queer rights in India
and led to the formation of the lesbian
activist group Caleri. The production of
Mehta’s film Water (2005) would also be
disrupted by hardline Hindu organisations.
Memories of My Body
Garin Nugroho (Indonesia, 2018)
Garin Nugroho received death threats
and faced a petition signed by 93,000
people to ban his beautiful drama about
an Indonesian dancer who explores his
identity when he joins a traditional Lengger
dance company. In the film, a sensitive boy
embraces the nature of the dance, which
involves men assuming female forms, to
the horror of traditional members of the
community. In some areas of Indonesia,
homosexuality is punishable by 100 lashes
and gay men have been publicly caned.
Rafiki
Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya, 2018)
“It is a sad moment and a great insult, not
only to the film industry, but to all Kenyans
who stand for morality, that a film that
glories homosexuality is allowed to be
the country’s branding tool abroad.” So
intoned the Kenya Film Classification
Board when it reluctantly lifted a ban
on Wanuri Kahiu’s drama depicting
romance between two young
women, in order for it to
qualify for the Oscars.
The film went on
to win more than
a dozen awards
worldwide.
Alex Davidson
WOMEN IN LOVE: WANURI KAHIU’S AWARD-WINNING RAFIKI (2018)
FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
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