A retired teacher travels from Georgia to Istanbul to fulfill her sister's dying wish: to find Tekla, her lost daughter. A meeting with a lawyer fighting for transgender rights opens her eyes to a new world. A film of small gestures, a hymn to solidarity and acceptance.
“With Crossing, I wanted to make a film about solidarity and small gestures of kindness and understanding between strangers and family. I also wanted to show environments and places that are rarely explored in stories from this region. The film is based on a true story I was told while researching my previous film, And Then We Danced, about a grandmother who traveled from Georgia to Turkey in search of her trans granddaughter. And just like my previous film, Crossing was also difficult to make. The existence of LGBTQ+ people in Georgia and Turkey is under intense pressure. There is a lot of my own experiences in it, I asked myself, ‘If my grandparents were alive today, would they accept me for who I am?’ Probably not, but by telling these stories of acceptance, I hope to inspire new possibilities.” (Levan Akin)
