Can family relationships be restored when a rejected trans woman "burns" all the bridges? A moving film drama seeks answers on the streets of Istanbul
An unfulfilled last wish?
An empty bed with a trapeze for immobile patients and a bedside table littered with medicines suggests that Lia (Mzia Arabuli) has only recently buried her sister - and that she probably doesn't have the heart to clean up the place where the deceased spent the last moments of her life. Quite possibly, she also doesn't want to close that chapter of her life until she's done everything she can to fulfill her sister's last wish - to find Tekla, who was banished from the house by her own father due to the "terrible shame" brought on by her trans identity. Even though Lia hasn't heard from her niece in years, in the context of coming to terms with her sister's departure, perhaps a preemptive trip across the border seems like a good way to occupy the mind and "push through" the helplessness with some activity.
In the footsteps of Istanbul's trans women
"Georgian and Turkish are gender-neutral languages; they don't distinguish grammatical gender," we learn at the beginning of the co-produced drama, a linguistic tidbit that would seem to suggest that perhaps there is something to envy about the trans people there. But as the film Bridges shows in many small nuances, neither in Turkey nor in Georgia do trans people have it easy. And it doesn't have to be at the imaginary (albeit unfortunately very authentic) extremes, where coming out in the Georgian "backwoods" results in family tragedy or where trans women make a living en masse in a dodgy neighbourhood of Istanbul, where they engage in the street sex business.
Even the film's sympathetic protagonist Evrim (Deniz Dumanli), a college-educated and confident trans woman whose entire existence symbolises the pursuit of a fulfilling life, experiences her own minor hardships. Yet in the process of obtaining her female official documents, she encounters all sorts of prejudices, inappropriate remarks and bureaucratic uselessness in Istanbul. But the issue of transition is not the central motif of the drama - the story focuses on humanity, acceptance, forgiveness and new hope.
"I wanted to show small gestures of solidarity between people. We don't come into the world with a choice of the family we are born into, but maybe we can choose the people who will become our family," Levan Akin, a Swedish-born filmmaker with Georgian roots who directed the drama with great empathy, said of Bridges.
Two worlds in one hostel room
On her way to Istanbul, where Tekla was supposedly going to move to find a better life, Achi (Lucas Kankava) invades Lia: a young man from the neighbourhood who is fed up with the nagging of his older brother, who is clearly a nuisance. At first glance, Lia and Achi are a very disparate pair - in age, expression and approach to life - and sharing a single room in a posh hostel makes the contrast even more striking. However, during their joint "search" for Tekla, they reveal the outer layers of their personalities, and instead of a proper lady and an incorrigible flirt, we suddenly see two good souls who find in each other a source of support and kind understanding.
"Phantom" and emptiness as a powerful message
As part of their spontaneous adventure, they have nothing else to do - Lia doesn't understand Turkish, she last visited Istanbul as a child and Achi is wandering the busy streets of the city without a single lira. During their not-so-successful wandering in the hypothetical footsteps of Tekla, about whom they know practically nothing apart from her trans identity, Lia and Achi come across various clues as to what her life might have been like in recent years. It is this "ghost" of Tekla, whose appearance the central couple (and the viewer along with them) hope for whenever any trans woman appears nearby, that has the strongest impact throughout the film.
If you reject a loved one because of their identity and desire to live authentically, you can't expect to find them in their original place when you remember that you'd like to rebuild the demolished bridge of your relationship.The empty place left behind by Tekla - as aching as her late mother's abandoned bed - becomes a silent but all the more powerful memento for anyone willing to let transphobia triumph over love, despite the film's caressing compassion.
You can now watch Bridges online at DAFilms and KVIFF.TV.
