An official selection of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, Aviva is a uniquely sexy, dancing-in-the-streets-and-sheets take on romance, set in a world of gender-fluid, frequently unclothed bodies. It will have its DVD, Blu Ray Disc and VOD (iTunes, Googleplay, Amazon, Vudu) beginning December 15, 2020 through Strand Releasing.
Director Boaz Yakin's impressionistic film takes a timeless, universal love story and makes it an up-to-the-moment physical exploration of gender dynamics by incorporating exuberant dance sequences choreographed by former Batsheva Dance Company dancer Bobbi Jene Smith (star Mari, and Bobbi Jene - winner Best Doc Feature, 2017 Tribeca Film Festival) and brilliantly danced by Smith, along with former Batsheva dancers Zina Zinchenko, Or Schraiber, and actor Tyler Phillips.
The character Aviva is a young Parisian who develops an online romance with a New Yorker named Eden. After a long-distance courtship they meet in person, fall in love, and eventually marry. The two lovers are played by four different dancer/actors simultaneously. As the young relationship grows, the lovers struggle as their shifting masculine and feminine sides battle for primacy-both inside and outside their bodies, as expressed through movement and dialogue.
Aviva captures our restless, frenzied and fluid time, demystifying the male-female dynamic and laying it bare like never before. Writer-director Boaz Yakin (Fresh, A Price Above Rubies, Remember the Titans) has crafted a relationship movie that exists in its own category, exploring the gender dynamics within two unforgettable characters who refuse to be contained by standard definitions, putting their relationship to the ultimate test.
Originally scheduled to premiere at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, Aviva will have its virtual theatrical release through select theaters in New York and Los Angeles on June 12, 2020, with a nationwide rollout to follow.
