An unlikely duo searches for a trans woman in Istanbul – and finds a community of outsiders: “Crossing” tells, in beautiful images, of the care of those who themselves have almost nothing.
A lot of people come here to disappear,” says Lia. She is talking about Istanbul: a city whose dirty, steep streets she has searched with her plastic shopping trolley, whose ferries she has looked out over the water, whose sesame pretzel sellers and street children she has asked for help in vain. But no one here knows a woman called Tekla. Maybe she just doesn’t want to be found. Maybe she wanted to disappear. Just like Lia is basically waiting to disappear. “I have no plans, no future,” says the retired history teacher with a stony look. “I’m here until I’m not anymore.”
Of course, you don’t quite believe her: In the role of this older lady, Georgian actress Mzia Arabuli lets you know from the start that behind her bitterness and severity there is also an elegance and joie de vivre that just needs to be teased out – the film “Crossing” does this in wonderful, calm images. And with a narrative that leads across social and linguistic boundaries and into a special community. The filmmaker Levan Akin, a Swede with Georgian roots, caused a stir in art cinema circles in 2019 with his drama “When We Danced” about a gay rapprochement in the Georgian National Ballet. Now, in “Crossing,” he lets two dissimilar travel companions immerse themselves in Istanbul’s trans community, which is characterized by vulnerability and mutual support.
The story begins in Batumi on the Georgian Black Sea coast: Lia has promised her sister on her deathbed that she will look for her daughter, Tekla, a trans woman who, abandoned by her family and rejected by the village, once emigrated to Istanbul. The young Achi (Lucas Kankava) thinks he has Tekla’s address and follows her; in reality, he wants above all to escape the harassment of his rude half-brother and seek his fortune in the city where his mother once disappeared.
Liquor from the plastic bottle
They set off with almost no money. “No drugs,” explains Lia, explaining her conditions – she doesn’t count the daily shot of chacha from the plastic bottle. It’s not just the alcohol that opens the floodgates of sympathy between her and the (life-)hungry, opportunistic boy. “Crossing” tells the story of the care of those who have little themselves on many levels: the trans lawyer Evrim (Deniz Dumanlı), who works pro bono for the sex workers in the area (and celebrates her own nightlife with infectious self-confidence), also looks after a neglected boy who plays lute and drags himself through restaurants and who has taken care of a little street girl.
Istanbul is not a city of longing with its oriental glow, but rather a chaotic metropolis where even in the hospital cats stalk the corridors and you have to be lucky to find an illegal taxi driver you can trust. But director Levan Akin also fills this city with people who look out for each other and face adversities – from poverty to corruption – with a dignified smile. His film sometimes meanders around as aimlessly as its protagonists, but sends us off into the night with a warm feeling.
