In this thesis, I have analyzed and problematized the discourse surrounding And Then We Danced (2019) dir. Levan Akin, by analyzing the film itself by using concepts from Pierre Bourdieu, and investigating what role the film has played in the call for action regarding LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia. I sought out to answer the research questions of how the film And Then We Danced (2019) portrays how one can adapt ones habitus and social field, how the film provoked the political discussion about LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia, and how the reception the film received reflected where Georgia, Sweden and the EU stands regarding the road to LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia. Using Bourdieu, I came to the conclusion that the film portrays how one can adapt ones habitus and social field through Merab’s character arc in the film, and the director used his cultural capital (embodied, institutionalized, and objectified) to not only produce the film itself, but giving a social subfield (Georgia’s LGBTQ+ community) acknowledgment and recognition by involving them in his film. Because of the reaction the film received, it amplified the need for social change in Georgia, reaching news across the globe, putting the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Georgia on the global political agenda. The way the reception the film received reflected where Georgia, Sweden and the EU stands regarding the road to LGBTQ+ rights in Georgia is quite accurate to where they stand politically regarding the issue. Georgia is divided on the issue as they both protested against the film while simultaneously selling out out all of their tickets to see the film, Sweden remained supportive and proud of the film throughout the entire process, and the EU much like Georgia is quite divided as they both funded the film, but does not have a united front on where they stand regarding the issue.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to explore the way how the gender performativity is portrayed in Xavier Dolan's films. The theoretical part of the thesis first deals with the definition and theoretical grounding of gender performativity from the perspective of several authors, mainly Judith Butler. This part of the thesis will detailly introduce the concepts of gender performativity, which will be necessary for the analysis of the studied films. The theoretical part also presents the queer theory and the related chapter devoted to queer film, which would also include Dolan's work. Lastly, this part also includes a chapter devoted to the concept of mise-en-scène. The methodological part introduces the method of semiotic analysis and introduces the synopsis of the studied films. The analytical part of the work presents its own semiotic analysis of the examined films. The aim of the analytical part is to find out how Dolan works with gender performativity in his films and how it is visually portrayed.

The thesis proposes the New Queer Cinema chapter of film history as a paradigm of queer film's subversive practices. The theoretically and historically focused first part establishes the term queer, expounds its possible applications to film in the realm of queer film studies and in the third chapter critically introduces the 'new wave' of queer film New Queer Cinema. The analytical part assigns queer and its possible functions as its basis for inquiry. It consists of two parts: the first performs the formal-content analysis of the pivotal film Swoon (1992); the final chapter builds on its conclusions and examines the corpus of New Queer Cinema films along four analytical cuts in order to describe how they produce the queer discourse. The final output of the thesis is an open model of prospective approaches to queer film.

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