Cinema’Crossed Paths’ classifies prejudice as a waste of time on a journey with remnants of hopeThe film directed by Levan Akin hit theaters this Thursday, 11, and will be available on MUBI from August 30th today at 4:52 pm

[Atenção: O texto abaixo contém spoilers de Caminhos Cruzados]

Directed and written by Levan Akin, Crossed ways premiered this Thursday, the 11th, in Brazilian cinemas, through a partnership between MUBI It is O2 Play.

The film begins with Lia (Mzia Arabuli)a history teacher, knocking on the door of a former student. She asks about her niece Tekla (Tako Kurdovanidze)and the atmosphere becomes heavy with the mention that the young woman lived in a house with other transgender girls.

Even though Tekla’s need for gender reassignment has no real effect on her neighbors or her weird aunt, everyone feels embarrassed for her except Achi. (Lucas Kankava). The boy confesses that he knows his niece’s new address and shows off his English communication skills to convince Lia to add a companion to her trip in search of Tekla.

Lia’s rigid and determined personality contrasts with Achi’s hyperactivity. They carry everything they have in a bag and a shopping cart like the ones used to go to the market. Among the items in the luggage are cucumbers from the garden that the teacher left behind. She has to sell jewelry to get money, while Achi only owns the clothes on her back and her documents.

The camera of Akin shows that the protagonists of the feature film cross paths for the first time on the ferry that is part of the route from Batumi, Georgia, to Istanbul, Turkey. Evrim (Deniz Dumanl)a trans lawyer, is smoking a cigarette on the upper deck of the ship — and Achi does the same. Meanwhile, the soundtrack gives way to Izzet singing (Bünyamin Değer).

The boy, whose childhood creativity is used to survive, takes care of a seemingly even younger girl, Gülpembe (Sema Sultan Elekci). Children live on the streets of Istanbul and wait for their mothers to return. Izzet’s story is similar to Achi’s. He tells Lia that he is also searching for someone—his own mother—in Turkey.

Achi soon finds other young people to party with—and to ask for a job—in Istanbul’s bustling nightlife. Lia, with the air of a hardened woman, sees the boy’s deviation as a betrayal and decides to explore a neighborhood known for prostitution alone.

In another country, Lia is seen again knocking on doors and asking about Tekla. The anguish becomes a growing feeling. The meeting with her niece was a promise to her deceased sister, Tekla’s mother. As Lia permeates the world where the young woman passed without leaving a trace, she begins to experience the generosity of the LGBTQIA+ community and the remorse for her own choices.

The serious-looking woman cannot resist the sincerity and hope that Achi carries. When she sees him sitting hungry on a sidewalk, Lia renews her friendship with the boy — giving herself the opportunity to create a new bond while mourning the loss of another.

At a certain point in the film, the wanderings and daily lives of the main characters finally result in them all meeting. Achi did not know Tekla’s real address, but Evrim’s arrival in her narrative seems to be the solution to everything — as the story progresses, the viewer is led to believe that Evrim could be her lost niece. The heart slows down when realizing that Evrim is Evrim, and Tekla is Tekla.

Lia gets close to the answers she seeks, but not close enough to track down the real Tekla. She leaves the past, in Batumi, behind for good and begins to believe in a future — different from the beginning of the film. The lady fantasizes about a warm hug with her niece. “We wasted so much time,” she says in the parallel reality, which is soon faded.

Although very different, Georgian and Turkish are gender-neutral languages. “How could these countries, then, be the scene of the rejection of people belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community?” — he asks Akin between the lines.

For Brazilians, Crossed ways It is a window that allows us to observe a world that is still largely unknown. Istanbul is presented as the home of cats that receive treatment similar to that of transgender women living in the capital: they are neglected.

Lia’s journey encourages Achi to free herself from Batumi and her brother. At the same time, it helps the teacher realize that the reasons that led her to distance herself from Tekla only justify her niece’s disappearance. The film shows the pain of those who hurt her and, through other characters, demonstrates the pain of those who were abandoned and saw, in the disappearance, a way to try to be happy.