BF@Í – Crossing

Presented By Blayney Film @ Íontas & access Cinema

TURKISH 106mins (2024) 15A

A promise made to her dying sister leads a retired Georgian teacher, Lia, to travel to Istanbul to seek out her sister’s estranged trans daughter. Arrived in Istanbul, Lia discovers the truth that, as a character says in the film, Istanbul is a city to which people go when they want to disappear. In Crossing, as often in quest-style narratives, it’s the personal encounters experienced in the quest that matter most. Slowly and subtly we see how, through these human contacts, Lia’s stern certainties are shaken, and that Achi, the young man who tagged along with her promising inside knowledge, is more than the opportunist that Lia takes him to be. In a non-didactic manner, the film lets us see the affecting and necessary solidarity within the Istanbul trans community in an often-hostile wider society, and reminds us that human identity and self-expression will take many forms. As one critic rightly put it, “Crossing is an emotionally rich [and] deeply humane film”. It also provides us with an immersive view of the teeming streets of non-tourist Istanbul and – of its legendary free-roaming cat population!

Director: Levan Akin

7.30pm – Tickets €7