Swedish writer/director Levan Akin went to Tbilisi Georgia for a cast of film newbies to play a tight group of young dancers slaving away at the National Georgian Ensemble, unpaid trainees in this traditional dance form, all hoping to make the leap to paid professional. Already wildly competitive under an over-controlling dance master, their interpersonal dynamic quickly upended when a talented new dancer (Bachi Valishvili) of natural command & technique arrives unheralded from another town. Manly handsome, too; upsetting various partnerships & balances. The main storyline focuses on initial main rival Levan Gelbakhiani, boyfriend to fellow dancer Ana Javakishvili, son & brother to past & present soloists; and his change from enemy to frenemy, from best pal to surprised (if brief) consensual sex-mate in spite of the strenuously homophobic official Georgian Party Line & environment. Akin’s nervous filming technique doesn’t always make the most of traditional Georgian classical folk dance (closer to Greek or Spanish flamenco than ballet), but what we do see (and hear) is pretty fascinating. So too the family situations & customs. So much so, that the sexual coming-of-age tropes, well done as they are, can feel like interruption, an unnecessary intrusion hoping to give relevancy and extra meaning to an old story. Only now, it’s the gay angle that feels de rigueur, and more than a bit conventional. Even though, as Georgian society goes, it must certainly isn’t! In any event, well played, and not just well meant.
DOUBLE-BILL: Gold standard on this theme remains André Téchiné’s WILD REEDS/’94. Now, amazingly, almost three decades old.
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