Before We Move

The film documents two years of a gay couple Misha and Otar before their immigration to Israel. The images of the documentary preserved their lives and emotions in the decision making process. While organizing queer tango events and giving tango classes, they are feeling lost about the upcoming departure.

Tango is a pair dance that originated in the poor port areas of Argentina at the end of the 19th century. It was danced by men, emigrants from Southern Europe, Africa, South America. The dance expressed their suffering about the abandoned homeland, family and loved ones. As society changes, how we dance changes too. In the modern time the international queer community reinvented it as Queer Tango. It’s a different way to dance, where nobody takes your gender, sexual orientation or choice of role for granted. Like any other popular dance, it is a mirror of the society in which it was developed and from which it emerges. It reflects life and helps people express their complex feelings through dance.

People have always moved in search of better living conditions and escaping dramatic political environment in their homeland. The rising level of homophobia in Russia forces many gays and lesbians to leave their country and seek refuge abroad. When narrow-minded traditionalism and xenophobia are rife in the country, tango leads you forward move by move, no matter what gender, sexual orientation or nationality you have.