And Then We Danced (2019) is a film from the Republic of Georgia. It was written and directed by Levan Akin.
The movie stars Levan Gelbakhiani as Merab, a skilled dancer at the Georgian dance academy. Ana Javakishvili portrays Mary, his long-time partner. Everyone at the academy is striving to be called up to the National Georgian Dance Ensemble.
A new dancer enters the academy--Irakli, played by Bachi Valishvili. Irakli is also a skilled dancer. Naturally, the two men see themselves as rivals. The question is whether rivals can be friends as well.
Of the two, Merab is the more creative dancer. However, creativity isn't valued in Georgian dance. As portrayed in the film, Georgian dance is traditional, with no room for change. The dancers at the National Georgian are expected to follow strict Georgian dance tradition. The best dancer is the dancer who can best display that tradition.
Mary loves Merab, but it's not clear whether her love is returned. Certainly, there's opportunity for intimate relationships, but Merab is reluctant to use these opportunities. The plot moves forward from there.
Additional information: the film is technically a Swedish-Georgian production. Director Akin is Swedish, but he's of Georgian descent. Sweden submitted this film for the Oscars, but it wasn't nominated. It was so controversial in conservative Georgia that riot police had to protect movie goers.
The singing and dancing in the film are both outstanding. The film has many virtues, but even without reference to the plot, it's worth seeing just to watch and listen.
We saw the movie on the large screen, thanks to ImageOut, Rochester's LGBT film festival. It will work almost as well on a small screen.
And Then We Danced has an extraordinarily high IMDb rating of 8.1. I think it's even better than that.
The movie stars Levan Gelbakhiani as Merab, a skilled dancer at the Georgian dance academy. Ana Javakishvili portrays Mary, his long-time partner. Everyone at the academy is striving to be called up to the National Georgian Dance Ensemble.
A new dancer enters the academy--Irakli, played by Bachi Valishvili. Irakli is also a skilled dancer. Naturally, the two men see themselves as rivals. The question is whether rivals can be friends as well.
Of the two, Merab is the more creative dancer. However, creativity isn't valued in Georgian dance. As portrayed in the film, Georgian dance is traditional, with no room for change. The dancers at the National Georgian are expected to follow strict Georgian dance tradition. The best dancer is the dancer who can best display that tradition.
Mary loves Merab, but it's not clear whether her love is returned. Certainly, there's opportunity for intimate relationships, but Merab is reluctant to use these opportunities. The plot moves forward from there.
Additional information: the film is technically a Swedish-Georgian production. Director Akin is Swedish, but he's of Georgian descent. Sweden submitted this film for the Oscars, but it wasn't nominated. It was so controversial in conservative Georgia that riot police had to protect movie goers.
The singing and dancing in the film are both outstanding. The film has many virtues, but even without reference to the plot, it's worth seeing just to watch and listen.
We saw the movie on the large screen, thanks to ImageOut, Rochester's LGBT film festival. It will work almost as well on a small screen.
And Then We Danced has an extraordinarily high IMDb rating of 8.1. I think it's even better than that.