Levan Gelbakhiani

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Levan Gelbakhiani , Georgian ლევან გელბახიანი (born December 30, 1997 in Chiatura ) is a Georgian actor and dancer. He gained international fame through his acting debut in the film As We Danced (2019).

Life

childhood and education

Levan Gelbakhiani was born in Georgia. According to his own statements, he was already fascinated by dance as a primary school student and often appeared in plays in his childhood, among others by Kote Marjanishvili and in Sochumi . Gelbakhiani later took part in workshops and decided to pursue a professional career as a dancer. He joined the Synthesis Theater, where he began to train professionally under the choreographer Giorgi Ghonghadze. Gelbakhiani trained in the theater department of the V. Chabukiani Tbilisi Ballet Art State School in Tbilisi .

Success with "When we danced"

Gelbakhiani achieved international fame in 2019 with the lead role in the feature film As We Danced by Levan Akin . In the Swedish-Georgian cinema production he took on the part of Merab, a budding dancer at the Georgian National Ballet in Tbilisi, who falls in love with a competing fellow student (played by Bachi Valishvili ). Director Akin became aware of the actor, who was still untested in the cinema , through pictures of Gelbakhiani on Instagram . Due to the homoerotic theme, he refused to take on the role of Merab several times at the beginning. It was only after meeting Akin and his family's approval that Gelbakhiani accepted the offer.

The process of making as we danced lasted for one and a half years. Akin later praised his leading actor as a very talented dancer and actor. “There's something very expressive about his face. It can trigger so many emotions so suddenly. A lot of things happen while you are watching him. It makes you as a viewer curious. And he often looks different - sometimes he looks young, sometimes he looks old. He has 50,000 faces. I knew it would be interesting to watch him, ”Akin said of Gelbakhiani. Gelbakhiani, on the other hand, often improvised as an actor and in this way brought a lot of himself into the film. He also became friends with his co-actor Bachi Valishvili and both supported each other during the filming. Gelbakhiani stated that the greatest challenge during the shooting was filming the final dance scene, in which he had to combine different dances, which required twelve hours of work in one day.

After the release of When We Danced at the 2019 Cannes International Film Festival , the film and lead actor Gelbakhiani received a lot of critical acclaim. For his “casual” and “fresh” portrayal of Merab, which reminded some critics of that of Timothée Chalamet from Call Me by Your Name , he won the Acting Awards at the Minsk , Odessa , Sarajevo and Valladolid film festivals as well as a nomination for the European Film Prize as best actor . At the same time, As we danced was submitted as a Swedish entry for the 2020 Academy Awards in the category of Best International Film . In contrast, the premiere of the film in Gelbakhiani's homeland Georgia in November 2019 was accompanied by protests in which 27 people were arrested. Other Georgian cinemas in which the film was shown had to be placed under police protection. Homophobic ultra-nationalist groups called for a boycott of Als Wir danced auf, while the Orthodox Church in Georgia described the film as unacceptable. Gelbakhiani himself publicly supported the LGBTQ community and criticized the Georgian government agencies, churches and public administration. The director and leading actor have also been the target of hate speech on the internet. During this time, Gelbakhiani received support from his family, friends and relatives.

Levan Gelbakhiani, called "Gelly" based on his family name, lives in Tbilisi. In the summer of 2019 he was part of Giorgi Aleksidse's contemporary ballet company, where he is training in modern choreography. Of the European Film Promotion Levan Gelbakhiani was in the list of ten in January 2020 European Shooting Stars added.

Filmography

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Levan Gelbakhiani . In: espersona.ge (Georgian; accessed November 26, 2019).
  2. ↑ მსახიობი ლევან გელბახიანი კანის ფესტივალის 15 ვარსკვლავს შორის მოხვდა . In: tabula.ge, May 21, 2019 (accessed November 20, 2019).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f #OK! ლევან გელბახიანი - ქართული კინოს ამომავალი ვარსკვლავი . In: okmagazine.ge, July 2, 2019 (accessed November 20, 2019).
  4. ↑ a b c d Gabelia, Alexander: ინტერვიუ ქართული გეი დრამის მსახიობებთან . In: netgazeti.ge, May 16, 2019 (accessed November 20, 2019).
  5. ^ Meza, Ed: Levan Akin on the Impact of 'And Then We Danced' . In: variety.com, August 19, 2019 (accessed November 21, 2019).
  6. ↑ a b Pham, Annika: Levan Akin on And Then We Danced . In: nordiskfilmogtvfond.com, May 18, 2019 (accessed November 21, 2019).
  7. ^ Péron, Didier: "And Then We Danced": saute de mœurs . In: next.liberation.fr, May 16, 2019 (accessed November 21, 2019).
  8. ↑ Brohammer, Nathanael: When we danced . In: programmkino.de (accessed on November 21, 2019).
  9. ↑ ლევან გელბახიანი წარადგინეს EFA- ს საუკეთესო ევროპელი მსახიობი კაცის ნომინაციაში . In: radiotavisupleba.ge, November 9, 2019 (accessed November 22, 2019).
  10. ↑ 27 arrests during protests against ballet film . In: zeit.de, November 10, 2019 (accessed November 21, 2019).
  11. ↑ გადავრჩებით, თუ ვერ გადავრჩებით? - ინტერვიუ პირველი ქართული გეი დრამის მსახიობებთან . In: cinemania.adjara.com, May 16, 2019 (accessed November 22, 2019).
  12. ↑ White, Claire: Taking Back the Culture: An Interview with And Then We Danced's Levan Akin . In: roughcutfilm.com, August 31, 2019 (accessed November 21, 2019).
  13. ↑ EFP presents the 2020 European Shooting Stars. In: cineuropa.org, January 9, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Gelbakhiani, Levan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES ლევან გელბახიანი (Georgian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Georgian actor and dancer
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1997
PLACE OF BIRTH Chiatura , Georgia