And Then We Danced (2019)
There's a moment early in And Then We Danced where a veteran instructor tells the young dancers that traditional Georgian dance contains no love, no sensuality, no individual feeling. It should be rigid, precise, masculine. And you immediately understand the trap that the film is setting, because everything that follows is about exactly those things: love, sensuality, individual feeling, all of it bubbling up unstoppably beneath a surface of enforced tradition. Levan Akin's 2019 drama is a genuinely charming piece of work, one that handles some seriously heavy cultural material with real warmth and a lot of heart.
The setup is a familiar one on paper. Merab, played brilliantly by Levan Gelbakhiani, is a dedicated member of a Georgian national dance ensemble. He's worked hard, he knows the routines, he's committed. Then Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) arrives, immediately talented, immediately threatening, and what begins as a competitive rivalry gradually, inevitably shifts into something far more complicated and far more tender. First love, basically. The real thing, the kind that catches you completely off guard.
What I think Akin gets so right is the way he uses the dance itself as a lens for everything the film wants to say. These classical Georgian routines are strict, heavily gendered, and deliberately "loveless" by design, which makes them the perfect visual counterpoint to what's actually happening between Merab and Irakli. Every time we watch these young men perform within those rigid structures, we're watching the tension between a deeply conservative cultural inheritance and the messy, insistent reality of who they actually are. It's a sharp, clever piece of visual storytelling, and it works.
I'd also say this handles its central romance considerably better than some of its peers. I know Call Me By Your Name has its devoted admirers, but I find And Then We Danced more honest, more grounded, less self-consciously lush. The chemistry between Gelbakhiani and Valishvili feels genuinely electric rather than carefully constructed, and the film earns its emotional beats rather than simply announcing them.
That said, I won't pretend it's a flawless picture, because it isn't quite. The first half is where the film really sings: the characters are likeable, the momentum is strong, and the central dynamic crackles. But the second act loses some of that energy as it works through the external pressures bearing down on Merab and Irakli's hidden relationship. It doesn't fall apart, but it does drift a little, and you feel the narrative searching for its footing before it finds it again. Happily, Akin brings it back for a finale that genuinely earns what it's asking you to feel. I left satisfied, which I wasn't entirely certain I would.
It also sits interestingly alongside other recent Georgian cinema. I reviewed City of the Sun (2017) not long ago, and while that film operates in a very different register, both share that preoccupation with what it costs to exist honestly within a deeply traditional community. Georgia, as a setting, carries a particular weight in these stories, and Akin, a Swedish-Georgian director, clearly understands it from the inside.
Three stars from me. And Then We Danced is vibrant, courageous, and genuinely moving when it's at its best. It doesn't quite sustain its early momentum all the way through, but what it does well, it does beautifully. And that closing sequence, Merab finally dancing on his own terms, is the kind of image that sticks around long after the credits roll. Worth your time.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2019 | Watched: 2026-06-21
Where to watch
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