#(finally no mentioning ATWD!)

[batri-jopa]

I've recently stumbled upon an old interview with Levan Gelbakhiani and Levan Akin about And Then We Danced (2019) and though I feel like I already must have read every single review and interview of ATWD it still was interesting to look at few things in a slightly different way

Like:

You know WHAT exactly made Levan Akin choose Levan G. for the main role?

Levan Akin: When I saw the Instagram feed, it wasn’t like, I want him. But he could dance and this feels dopey to say but he felt earnest and sweet. And I wanted to find like a sweet character that could be like a regular Georgian boy, who is not threatening in any way, just like a sweet kid, basically. And he looked like a sweet kid on his Instagram.

...and WHY is there a cut in the middle of Honey scene? (I recall some more stupid biased reviewers even claim this fact to be bad movie-making😑)

Levan Akin: Because the whole film is actually edited from the notion that we cut into everything late and we cut out of everything little too early, because we want to keep people wanting more and wanting to see it again and again and again. I don’t think it would be as impactful actually, if it was longer (...)

Umm... Let me rephrase that: he chose to give us the sweetest "product" and then cut the pleasure in the middle just to deliberatily make us want it again and again?! Sir, ain't that a STRAIGHTFORWARD DRUG-DEALER STRATEGY!?! No wonder I got so addicted!!! (not that I'm complaining really)

It warmed my heart that he creates his stories the same way I do🫠

Levan Akin: (...) I had a script, but I only had a beginning, a middle and an end.

Oh and I love to talk about "not spoken dialogs" in the movie - and yes, he mentions about it too!!!😍

Levan Akin: (...) An intimacy scene to me is like any other scene, it’s a scene with dialogue and conflict and things happening, except it’s not spoken. It’s spoken through the actions, the intimate actions. I had other things more like narratively that I wanted to get through with those scenes. The first one I wanted to keep it in one shot, because I wanted to convey this feeling of being them, there. (...)

I was surprised when he said that shot when they're "curled up in a ball together" was not planned😳 (but it still doesn't mean the resemblence to To Mennesker sculpture to be purely accidental, right?)

Levan Akin: That’s my favorite, too. I love that shot. (...) It wasn’t scripted. I wrote in the script that they’re hugging. And that it’s actually not a rock. It’s a something called a kvevri, which is a Georgian winemaking vessel. So it’s a very symbolic thing.

What he says about some people keep on comparing ATWD with Call Me By Your Name?

Levan Akin: It feels like a huge compliment, because it’s a great movie. So we’re just happy. (...) But I think he’s under the lazy to compare all the gay movies with each other. More common with this movie thematically would be Dirty Dancing.

Hell yeah Dirty Dancing, I knew it!💪

And final question, what do you want people to take away from it?

Levan Akin: Everything? I want them to take away the nobody can tell you what it means to be alive. Nobody can dictate to you what you should be, to fit a certain mold of a cultural tradition. This dialogue that’s so rampant right now, about what is a real Swedish person, what are the boxes you need to click and who are these people telling us this and why we need to take that narrative back and own it ourselves and stand up for ourselves and be like, Listen, I can be trans and Swedish and Muslim at the same time, because that’s for you to decide. And I’m not going to let you hijack that. That’s what I want people to take away from this. I’m tired of all of these crazy bigots dictating us.

Oh yeah, I believe this movie could be empowering and relatable to everybody!🫠

[notasapleasure]

ATWD for the fandom meme.

Thank you! ^^ I wrote most of this up days ago then America happened again and I forgot to finish it off.

Fandom asks:

   the first character i ever fell in love with: although I would defend Irakli with my life it's obviously Merab. Obviously.    a character that i used to love/like, but now do not: no one, my love for nearly every character has only grown! And I never liked Luka, the little rat.    a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not: again, nothing really applies here    my ultimate favorite character™: Merab. For his determination and the strength beneath the sweetness.    prettiest character: I mean, it's Merab again. Honorary mention to Sopo though, Ana Makharadze is absolutely gorgeous.    my most hated character: Luka. No question.    my OTP: Merab/Irakli!    my NOTP: ahhhh Irakli/Nino I guess (no offense to the actors who are actually an item)    favorite episode/scene: ughhhh I find it so hard to pick. The pan through the wedding is great but I think the pan through Mary's birthday with the men singing Tsintsqaro is underrated. And the Honey scene is perfect, of course. And the one after the wedding with David. I'm bad at choosing just one.    saddest death/scene: there's such bittersweetness running through everything from the drive back from Mary's to the end of the night out clubbing, all the soundtrack keeps saying things are over even before Merab knows they are (Patara Bich'i, Molly Nilssen, Héctor Oaks...). But probably it's the break-up. The awkwardness of talking in a room where the lack of privacy is made so clear (you can see Mary on the other side of the internal windows after Irakli leaves), the fact that neither of them is able to talk about their own feelings about what's happening, there's just all that's contained in Merab's heartbreaking admission about the earring: 'I don't need it anymore'. OW. Ow. It's so unsatisfying in so many ways but that's why it feels so true and real.    least favorite season/scene: I find the injury one hard to watch, partly from second-hand embarrassement, partly from Luka's homophobia, partly from it...sounding really, truly painful. I also have mixed feelings about the narrative at this point and the sheer amount of stuff heaped on Merab in the space of a couple of days, but I suppose it sets him up for a fresh start afterwards. Still not sure the injury was *strictly* necessary to the story, but there we are - it's a side-effect of the uncertainty in which they were working, I think, that there are so many sometimes conflicting or unnecessary strands supporting the structure of the story. I suppose I could say the exact same thing about him getting fired from the restaurant too.    character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate: no one? I think I'm more likely to love characters other people don't really like...case in point:    my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave: so, I don't think Irakli's a piece of trash, I choose to take what he says about having to leave at face value, and other than that I think he's just scared - I also think his abruptness in the break-up is partly a response to Merab's 'congratulations' and brave act of not caring. Which is all to say he's not my trash fave because he's not trash, so there. *gets off soap box* Now...I'm gonna say something brave yet controversial and say Aleko is my trash fave. I see a lot of tags like 'ugh homophobic dance teacher' and...he's not openly homophobic in the film at all. He's upholding the stupid masculine strictness of the dance, but that's literally his job, and he's quite understanding with Merab after his injury, he supports him enough for him to get his audition, and he does him the honour of watching the whole of his final dance. It's not much, granted, and the way he pushes Merab (but presumably has never corrected his landing the way Irakli did the first time he noticed him doing it wrong) always makes me mad, but I think Aleko's someone who could be won round, or who would at least support Merab with references for whatever he goes on to do afterwards - and who deep down respects the final dance and the curtsey at the end of it. Or maybe I'm just delusional because I watched an interview with Kakha Gogidze and thought I understood what he was saying in Georgian. I guess David's a good candidate here, too, though he's not remotely a fave for his general personality, there's just that one scene where he reassures Merab about everything and it's the scene that broke me when I first watched it. I suppose I feel like David *should* be my answer here for that one scene, which is such a good scene, but I just struggle to think of him as a fave through the rest of it. It's probably pathological that I'm just more likely to want to redeem beardy old grumps rather than performatively hyper-masculine brother types.    my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave: Merab *and* Irakli I'm gonna say. I wish they'd had enough time to figure each other out a bit more, that's all, enough time for Irakli to accept himself better.    my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship: no such thing in this film!    my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship: David and Sopo I guess? I want them to be happy together as far as possible.

[batri-jopa]

Hey, other And Then We Danced (2019) fans, listen, have you already known that the song in the background of this movie scene...

...was initially different than the one we know from the final version of the film?🤯

[Video comes from this post of @andthenwedanced on Instagram (dated: 29 August 2019)]

What you hear in the fragment above is Tu Ase Turfa Ikavi (თუ ასე ტურფა იყავი) - and not Khma Amoige Panduro ! (which I already described to you in Part 1 of my "ATWD soundtrack & lyrics" series)

If you were so fine / Tu Ase Turfa Ikavi

If you were so fine, Why didn't I mention you, violet? Because, for love, I hadn't my heart open ( x2)

Now I met another gardener, Who swayed me with petting, Sang to me sweet voice, And swayed me on hem ( x2)

If you were so fine, Why didn't I mention you, violet? Because, for love, I hadn't my heart open ( x2)

[translation given by YouTube user @merabbarbakadze in comments under Hamlet's Gonashvili version of the song]

Alternative translation:

If you were so beautiful, why didn't I notice you before, violet? Because I didn't have my heart opened for love.

Now I met another gardener filled me with tenderness sweetly blazed with me began to swing me on hem of a skirt

if you were so beautiful Why hadn't I noticed you before, violet? Just because my heart was yet not opened for the love.

[translation above was given by YouTube user @leokac in comment under this Ketie's Melua version of the song]

თუ ასე ტურფა იყავი რად ვერ გამჩნევდი იაო იმად რომ სიყვარულისთვის გული არ გამიღიაო იმად რომ სიყვარულისთვის გული არ გამიღიაო

ახლა სხვა მებაღე შემხვდა ალერსით გამაბნიაო, ტკბილადაც მამიგურგურა კალთაზედ დამარწიაო. ტკბილადაც მამიგურგურა კალთაზედ დამარწიაო.

ცაზედ მიდიან წერონი მწკრივად და ჯარის ჯარადა რით ვერ შაიგნეთ იალნო ცრემლებ ჩამამდის ღვარადა რით ვერ შაიგნეთ იალნო ცრემლებ ჩამამდის ღვარადა

თუ ასე ტურფა იყავი რად ვერ გამჩნევდი იაო იმად რომ სიყვარულისთვის გული არ გამიღიაო იმად რომ სიყვარულისთვის გული არ გამიღიაო

[Original Georgian lyrics according to www.smule.com]

Now you can compare it with the song that was used in the final version of ATWD:

ხმა ამაიღე ფანდურო [Khma amoige panduro]

Raise your voice, panduri For the rising sun I wish to speak a shairi, For a sun-faced beauty, Sun-faced, sun-faced, for the sun-faced beauty

ხმა ამაიღე ფანდურო ამომავალი მზისთვინა შაირ მწადიან წარმოვთქო პირიმზე ლამაზისთვინა მის: პირიმზე პირიმზე პირიმზე ლამაზისთვინა

[⬆️The above is from FINAL version!⬆️]

Now I am not sure what was the actual reason that one song won over another. Maybe And The We Danced movie makers simply had no permission to use "Tu Ase Turfa..."? (It happened before - many singers wanted not to be associated with movie about "perverts", that's why most of ATWD songs were recorded particulary for the movie and the song sang in the car had to be literally written for the car scene alone (!!!) - you can read more about it my "And Then We Danced: Soundtrack & Lyrics" series or under my "ATWD amateur guidebook" tag). Or maybe it was decided to not fit to the moment in the film as perfectly as "Khma amoige..."?

I got to say I loved "Tu ase turfa" since the first time I heard it (and it was on ATWD OST playlist even! Though I thought it was a mistake for that song was nowhere in the final movie so I thought that maybe somebody was mistaken... Yes I was so stupid to think someone could mistake two totally different songs, lol😅). But I love "Khma amoige..." so much in this scene, it sounds so quiet and delicate, almost like a lullaby... or maybe like a first shy thought of noticing somebody's beauty for the first time? - and it fits so perfectly with Merab's bashfull little laugh in marshrutka when Irakli's sleeping on his shoulder🫠 While "Tu ase turfa" would sound more... solemn? And serious? (especially the part with choir). I can imagine it would feel more as if Merab was already deeply in love in that moment... Though the lyrics does emphasize the fact of not noticing beauty before being ready for love so theoretically it does fit to that movie scene... So I don't know, just my thoughts😅

But I love both songs, I love all of them!❤️❤️❤️

[batri-jopa]

I'm digging through my drafts lately so now the time has come to speak about movies that are like milestones for me:

Collateral (2004) dir.Michael Mann

I watched it for the first time in June 2021 and it became my hyperfixation, something I've been obsessed so much that... well, I literally LIVED that movie for about 4 months and I consider it changed my life's goals' perception❤️‍🔥 I've been reading all possible reviews, comments, interpretative theories... I wanted to wrote my own review and interpretation of the film.

(Just for those freaking abt actors: ppl who hate movies with Tom Cruise in it - usually make exception for the Collateral - and if THAT'S not convincing to you I don't know what is!)

Who would have guessed that the story about heartless hitman interacting with that poor random taxi driver has a potential to change a live perspective of a 35 years old person? Vincent is so inhumane I'm not even sure he deserves to be called a "character" (not more than a killer-cyborg probably) and what he says to Max about his attitude toward the world and his life and his dreams is so provocative and cruel but... it's all so freaking true. You are over 30 already and the time to act and to change your life and to fulfill your dreams is NOW! Now or never!

"Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you will wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen, and it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory and then zone out in your barco lounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for the rest of your life."

Not to mention every next victim feels like another lesson in personal developement of Max (or any viewer sympathising with him), just like those lessons given to Scrooge by ghosts in A Christmas Carol. Yes, there are five of them instead of three but it's like the first case is: "wake up!" - the next: "this happens for Real!" - then "and there's nearly nothing you can do about it..." - and "...but you got to try anyway..." - followed by: "...because it's all about you right from the start!"

(One night you may need to turn your whole life upside down)

And I know some people see the last case as lame, cliche, unbelieveble, predictible or whatever - but jeez, ppl, that's how it works in a theater play! Of course it could have been predicted and so what?! It's the story about Max's character and in my opinion: that when he gets to know about his key role in all this - in a way similar to Bastian in The Neverending Story.

And I dare to say at this point it is not about any "love" or any such thing (here, take my AroAce filter): it's about a dream, that still is to be fulfilled, about a life, that could have been, about the right to be yourself and freedom to choose your way. About an urge to fight for something so important that you simply can't turn away from it anymore. About a need to defend something that feel so close and dear to you like it's your core, like it's yourself - like it was all about your life from the very beggining!

(And what if: maybe it all would never had happened if not for Max symbolic giving away his dream "island"?🤔)

I love how the provocative speech of Vincent to Max and all the uneasy questions he gives to him are meant to get him out of his comfort zone: your job is to take the client from point A to B, never before have you cared what they gonna do there, maybe all of them where going to kill or hurt somebody, so why did you not care about it ever before? Why would you care about it now? What the difference if the bad thing is happening close to you or far away from you? What's the difference if you do or do not know about it? And what actually changed in your case now - anything other than that now you know? In all this you are irrelevant, COLLATERAL, you are only a fucking meaningless, powerless cab driver! Look at you, you're not even the one to decide your own route! And if you decided to only always do your job without the second thought - then why don't you just do your fucking job right now?!

And then it's like: you can run from your problems and avoid hard decisions for just so long - there's literally no more place left to run and hide, and you got to face your greatest fear... To save a life.

Not your life though.

You'll be reminded it's NOT about you. That it's not your business. So you can simply step back and live. Just keep on being nobody, not having anything to say, not having any power over bad things happening around you. You'll be reminded that you're weak and you can keep the safe distance and remain comfortably numb just as you always used to be...

You could remain COLLATERAL

Only would you be able to live with knowing you haven't even tried?

As much as I hate guns IRL - I loved to learn about the "mozambique drill" (some fans probably breaking new record of rewatching "yo, hommies" scene over and over again) and reading other viewers' interpretations of what actually happen in the final shooting... and of why he could not or would not reload... (as a neurologist I'd vote it's bc of his brachial plexus) and finally thinking about the spontaneous act of previously non-spontanous character - winning over cold routine of the one always talking about "adapting to enviroment"... Like Max've won over him by actually learning his lessons!

This movie is filled with symbols and allegories. Starting with the silver gray Vincent: I like to compare him to a heartless cyborg T1000 from Terminator 2: The Judgement Day, or see him as an angel of death, or even - as mirror giving a dark reflection, like an evil alter-ego of the main character! (there's the allusion of policemen that a taxi driver might get rampage and kill ppl around the town - followed by Max's mother asking "Who?" like not noticing Vincent - to the point Max actually "acts" Vincent - all these priceless little hints that Vincent might not even exist in a first place...)

My own favorite interpretation is that Vincent is personification of a coyote - the spirit animal meant to teach you life lessons that are many times very uneasy but really rewarding

(And don't listen to director talking about Vincent, it seems to me that Michael Mann did not himself get any deeper meaning of this guy at all!😑 Like treating his past history seriously? Oh please, have mercy...🙄 Vincent's power derives from the fact he's so perfectly inhumane he barely touches the earth! Or at least he's the perfectly neutral transparent everyman... who's empty of emotions. And you can treat as a symbol of anything you want!😋)

The story takes place in the middle of the night - with the broad streets of the great town being almost empty - and it's such an unusual view it gives an almost dreamlike mood. Perfect time and place for a life-changing story about changing your life.

All in all this story is so brilliant someone definitely should have made a movie about it!

😆

PS. And I love the soundtrack.

[batri-jopa]

I'll be talking about #ATWD kintouri trail now.

It goes like this: you watch the movie And Then We Danced (2019, dir. Levan Akin) for the first time. Maybe even stay for the whole End Credits because of that enchanting beautiful music... And you notice the very last song in the credits is a little different. Sounds really old, unclear and... well generally not so very great. Probably been put in end credits to correspond with those old films of georgian dances the movie begins with, you think. Yeah, fair enough, you think.

Only a tiny detail more: its name is Kinto's Song.

Rings a bell? Like: hey, wait a minute, wasn't the dance that boys were dancing also named kintouri?

So, yeah, you've found the connection, you can be proud of yourself! Now if you decided not to be obsessed with ATWD you feel satisfied enough already and just go on and live your life...

Otherwise - you start to dig.

.

First of all: what does kinto (კინტო) mean?

In old Tblisi (end of XIX century, beginning of XX) Kintos were small merchants, often street fruit sellers, usually carrying their goods on their heads around the city.

Their lifestyle was not like the rest of the georgian society and their traditional clothes were different from other Georgians as well: instead of chokha Kinto was wearing black outfit with baggy pants and a silk shawl hanging from his silver belt - the shawl was to wrap the fruits and vegetables in them to weight.

Sources (read if you're interested): [X], [X], [X]

So, young males and rather poor ones. And without families in the very family-centred georgian society... I don't think it's very surprising to learn that homosexuality wasn't rare among their community (although that's the part you won't find on georgian wikipedia). Even less knowing that when you're on the bottom of the social ladder it's finally where nobody around cares about your life anymore🤷 (I only wonder if it was rather the primal reason for anyone to leave his home and choose a life like this or if it was finding out ones orientation due to mainly interacting with other men. I suppose it might have worked both ways?)

Then we come to the "traditional georgian dance" issue: Kinto's traditional dance is kintouri (or Kintauri, კინტოური) also known as shalakho (შალახო) and it is said to be informal and light natured. I've also read that some of its parts (like hands movements) are of Persian origin. A female Persian dance specifically. [X]

Of course when Kintouri became a part of official Traditional Georgian Ballet - it went through some changes. As was mentioned in And Then We Danced in the last 50 years it became more "masculine", just like adjaruli and other Georgian Dances. So before that I believe it could have been more like this?

It's Fridon Sulaberidze (ფრიდონ სულაბერიძე) who was born in 1941 but I have no idea what year the film is showing😕 probably 1970's?

Now finally: what is the Kinto's Song? It is the song recorded on X-ray plate almost hundred years ago and found in 2018. Illegal song: song of a man loving two other men. I guess Levan Akin must have found the song quite recently before making And Then We Danced (2019).

Knowing all that historical and cultural context - I can not imagine any better fitting song for the end of the movie about struggling between your tradition and culture and your love to another guy...

That movie is a masterpiece in every little detail!🥰❤❤

.

Of course it's just a beginning - what I wanted to indicate just now is that the song in End Credits is a hint to kintouri being a trail to follow throughout the movie. Furthermore I want to show you how it may lead to see few movie scenes in a little bit different light (like here), so expect me talking more about #ATWD kintouri trail from time to time

[batri-jopa]

Me reading some ATWD fanfic set in the room of Irakli’s Granny: *evil thoughts*

Also me: Oh, calm down, it’s just somebody’s else’s fantasy! Don’t treat that like some „who makes it better” competition, you’re not a writer!

Me again: *writing a fic anyway*

Okey, don't get me wrong: reading other fanfics I may grind my teeth numerous times thinking how „unbelievable” or „wrong” or „misunderstood” some things are - BUT I do know it still is the most valid fanfic! And I’d rather fight for your right to write whatever you please than say anything against it. Because the only rule of any fanfic or fanart is: „perfectly fine as long as it brings you pleasure”.

Above everything else I can’t blame people for the want to make their favorite characters talk about their feelings. I feel you there, I understand you and I also do wish all the people in the world learned to always speak freely and honestly about what they feel.

Only NOT Merab and Irakli and NOT in this point of the story!😆

As two typical young Georgians they never learned to speak about their feelings. They don’t even know the right words. And those very few words they do know all sound inadequate or offending for that indescribably beautiful thing that they are experiencing.

And so they are left there with the only language they do know and use: rules of courtesy, rules of rivalry and silly teasing each other. There's only few types of movement accepted for two men: either of a dance or a fight. And it's all covered with the sauce of deeply internalised fear: „what will people say?”

But it all makes my heart melt even more because they somehow manage to be together! Love will find a way. Avoiding words of hate and insults - they still find their own non-verbal way of communicating. No matter how much they've been taught to compete, the more they've been trained all their lives for male cockfighting, the more equally they treat each other when they're alone. The most equal lovers, to the point that even when they finally make love - they are sides!❤❤ And the more is left unspoken, unnamed and undefined between them - the more organic and beautiful it feels...

So, I don’t know, I finnaly got to write it down like there’s no other option🤷

But don’t worry, in the end I still leave them there in each other arms for you🫂 Can’t tell for sure if there i any real „tension” because I’m ace, but it feels kind of awkward so I guess it’s there... With „I wanted you so much I almost beat you” kind of energy from the „behind the kvevri” scene. And with the door closed and the bed right next to them.

Dinner is served, bon apetit!😋

Ps. When I mention "cockfighting" I refer to one of these pictures from my #bird version ATWD series and as to the kitten trying to look bigger - I meant this.