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‘Crossing’ Review: The Search for a Runaway Trans Relative Reveals a Seldom-Seen Side of Istanbul
On the heels of 'And Then We Danced,' director Levan Akin casts Mzia Arabuli as a stoical Georgian schoolteacher desperate to find her trans niece.
“Crossing” tells the engaging if somewhat meandering story of an elderly Georgian schoolteacher, Ms. Lia (Mzia Arabuli), committed to honoring her sister’s dying wish to find her estranged daughter, Tekla (Tako Kurdovanidze). The camera settles on two scrawny orphans on the lower deck, one strumming a guitar and singing to his “sister.” These are Izzet (Bünyamin Değer) and Gülpembe (Sema Sultan Elekci), who are no more related than Lia and Achi, though audiences can be excused for assuming otherwise. “Crossing” doesn’t wrap up the search for Tekla as neatly as audiences might like, but uses it to take viewers down the same streets where trans people gather in Istanbul, entering the rooming houses — little more than brothels, really — that provide some sense of community.
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