Crossing

A retired teacher from Georgia (Mzia Arabuli) goes on a trip to Istanbul to find her long lost niece.

So you’ve probably heard this one before: two unlikely characters travel to an unknown place with no money, in search of something (or someone in this case) they might never find. In doing so they find a piece of themselves along the way.

OK so the bones of Crossing are pretty familiar but sometimes it’s all about how you tell a story and this is a sensitive, warm film that follows very few of the typical plot beats you might expect from such a narrative.

Instead there’s a kind of loose feeling to it that meanders toward its destination, nudging the characters toward their goal and tugging them away again at various points. It’s completely engrossing and puts full faith in the wonderful lead actors to carry off a series of nuanced and softly spoken scenes.

A journey worth getting onboard with.