And Then We Danced · reception & legacy
2019 · Levan Akin
How And Then We Danced has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A Cannes Directors' Fortnight favourite in 2019, it became something much bigger when far-right mobs tried to shut down its Georgian premiere — the Tbilisi screenings, held under police guard, turned the film into a landmark event for LGBTQ visibility in the Caucasus.
What's debated
Fans still debate whether it transcends the queer coming-of-age template (the Call Me By Your Name comparisons follow it everywhere) or whether its Georgian dance-world setting makes it something genuinely new.
Its footprint
The bedroom dance to ABBA's 'Take a Chance on Me' is its most shared, most rewatched moment — and the film itself became a real-world protest symbol, with its besieged Tbilisi screenings making international news.
Where it stands
A fixture of Letterboxd's queer-cinema canon — one of those late-2010s films that gets handed to people as an entry point into contemporary LGBTQ world cinema.