It was premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival [ 4 ] [ 5 ] where it received a fifteen-minute standing ovation. In an interview with the Zurich Film Festival , director Levin Akin said that he was inspired by images of the Tbilisi anti-homophobia rally protests where dozens of young people protesting homophobia were violently attacked by thousands of counter-protesters from the Georgian Orthodox Church. The film was logistically difficult to shoot.
Due to the nature of the film and prevalent homophobia in Georgia, an alternative story was told to onlookers that the film was about a French tourist who falls in love with Georgian culture. The production crew received death threats and had to hire security while on set. Both lead actors Levan Gelbakhiani and Bachi Valishvili , who were contacted by Akin via social media, initially refused the offered roles due to concerns about backlash in Georgia and how it would affect their future careers.
Merab Levan Gelbakhiani is a young man and dedicated Georgian dancer training at the National Georgian Ensemble with his partner and pseudo-girlfriend, Mary Ana Javakhishvili , and his deadbeat, delinquent brother David Giorgi Tsereteli. One day, a rehearsal is interrupted by the arrival of Irakli Bachi Valishvili , a replacement dancer. Though Irakli rankles some of the other dancers as well as the choreographer, Aleko Kakha Gogidze , with his smug and rebellious attitude, he quickly proves himself to be a natural talent and replaces Merab in a dance, as Aleko had criticized him for not being masculine and rigid enough.
Merab is initially jealous of Irakli's talent, as Irakli has been dancing for much less time than he has, but when the two start rehearsing together early in the morning, they begin to bond. A friendly rivalry forms as they compete for a coveted spot in the main ensemble, though Mary learns that the spot is vacant because the previous male dancer had been caught having sex with another man, leading him to be severely beaten by the other dancers and sacked.
Later, we hear that his family sent him to a monastery to be cured but a monk took advantage of him so he escaped. But since his family won't take him back he has to resort to prostitution to survive. Merab visits his father, who, with Merab's mother, used to be part of the dance ensemble. His father implores him to give up his passion and attend school, as there is no future in dance; furthermore, Aleko dislikes their family, and has been biased against him and David as a result.
