Winner of the directing award at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, Marija Kavtaradze’s second feature Slow is a unique, intimate relationship tale, following a contemporary dancer who forms a bond with an interpreter assigned to her class. Emerging as a sensitive portrait of asexuality, the film was selected as Lithuania’s Oscar entry and is now getting a U.S. release from KimStim Films starting May 3 at IFC Center. Ahead of the release, we’re pleased to exclusively reveal the new trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “Contemporary dancer Elena meets Dovydas when he is assigned to interpret via sign language in a class she is teaching to deaf youth. Their connection is immediate, kinetic, and frictionless. As they gravitate toward each other, resisting the forces and interventions of their separate daily lives, their bond deepens from platonic to romantic. When Dovydas discloses his asexuality, the couple commit themselves to honoring their individual needs in tandem. As they continue to weave more tightly together, they struggle to negotiate sacrifice and compromise and are forced to discover the edges of their generosity toward the other.”
“That was my goal: to tell a love story. It’s important that he is asexual, and I tried to be respectful of that. I really did my research. Still, I focus on that relationship in the end. But by time I’d finished writing the script, I realised it wasn’t about sex; it’s about other issues they have,” the director told Cineuropa. “At first, when I was talking about this idea, many would go: ‘He is asexual? This will never work.’ But he still wants romance! I realised that people like Dovydas have to explain themselves all the time. I can only imagine how annoying it must feel, so what I wanted to do in the film was not to question him, ever. He knows who he is – that’s why he says it so early, and I like him for that. This way, she can make her own decision.”
See the exclusive trailer below.
Slow opens at IFC Center on May 3, LA’s Laemmle Theatres on May 10, and will expand.