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Filmmakers with the sensitivity and tenderness of Levan Akin don't come along too often – so a new feature from the Georgian-Swedish filmmaker is always something to celebrate.

Akin stole hearts in 2019 with his dance picture And Then We Danced, which told a story of masculinity and Georgian politics and dance simultaneously with revelatory fresh-faced actors. He returns with a story no less specific or moving in the quiet odyssey that is Crossing.

Retired teacher Lia (Mzia Arabuli) is our protagonist, a headstrong Georgian woman determined to find her long-lost niece, Tekla. Most of their family seem to have given up on her – but there's no way Lia can do that. Her mission becomes both easier and more complex when her neighbour, a young and seemingly aimless man, Achi (Lucas Kankava), shares news that Tekla may be living a new life in Turkey. The strangers embark on this journey together to find Tekla – but, as is the case when a person doesn't necessarily want to be found, things aren't exactly straightforward.

Lia and Achi eventually join forces with Evrim (Deniz Dumanli), a lawyer fighting for trans rights and in the process, the pair learn much more about what Tekla may have gone through, and how identity struggles and the eternal yearning for acceptance can take a lifetime to move through.

The three characters are played with great care and empathy by newcomers Arabuli, Kankava and Dumanli. (Akin proved his worth as a master of discovery with Levan Gelbakhiani as the lead of his previous feature). It's a refreshing and unusual dynamic that resists easy categorisation: not family, nor lovers, nor, actually, friends at all. And yet, they're all one another has.

Akin navigates these relationships and topics with ease, giving deserved importance to a mature female character who leads the story, while showing a different side to contemporary masculinity, and the hard-to-define dynamic that transcends borders and generations. It is a story of humanity that can be understood and deeply felt across the world, while speaking to the specific cultures of both Georgia and Turkey.

Akin shows a vivid, eccentric and vibrant trip through the streets of Istanbul and gives a compassionate and deeply humane depiction of the city's trans community in a way that only his lived-in experience could master.

The world is already taking note. The film wowed audiences at this year's BFI Flare festival and won the Teddy Jury Award – the Berlin Film Festival's award recognising significant films exploring LGBTQ+ topics – after its world premiere.

Audiences shared the same kind of enthusiastic and enamoured response Akin received showing And Then We Danced five years ago at Cannes. Indeed, time repeats itself, and Crossing asks us to extend the same empathy to those realising they want another path in life at any age: as a young boy craving a big adventure; a mature woman realising her family's choices may not align with her own; a young transgender woman still weighing up exactly what she wants her life to look like.

It is an eloquently told story of forgiveness that introduces global audiences to the specificities of communities in Turkey. It shows one part of the world's culture while reaching out to those searching for meaning in their own ways across the world.

Acceptance is universal, and so is the emotion that not all filmmakers can harness, but Levan Akin certainly can. One to look forward to with your whole heart wide open.   Ella Kemp

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