Love Translated (2010)

Love Translated
DirectorJulia Ivanova
Genredocumentary film
CountryCanada

Plot

Ivanova documents 10 men from the United States, Canada, France and Sweden as they travel to Odesa, Ukraine, on a romantic tour, arranged by an online dating company AnastasiaDate, to look for possible wives. While there, the men go to several social events, including a beauty pageant at a nightclub, where they meet large numbers of attractive, single women. The interactions at the socials and on the dates the men go on are facilitated by translators.

The 84-minute movie is broken into 10 segments or chapters, one for each day of the trip, and each with its own subtitle. It uses a framing device of footage of Michael Lau, a Chinese man living in Richmond, British Columbia, who states he has never had 'real girls' in his life, at the beginning of the film. He says that after 30 years in Canada, he is under family pressure to get married. Other men include Calvin, a Marine veteran; Ramon, a doctor; and Ernie, a man from Minnesota. Except for Lau, the other men who don't reveal their last names, cite bad experiences with women, including divorces, as their motivation for joining AnastasiaDate, an online dating site, and going on the trip. They believe that Ukrainian women have more traditional values when compared to the values of non-Ukrainian women.

At the end of the movie, Lau is shown back in his apartment, using his computer to explore the AnastasiaDate.com website after having gone on 10 dates during the trip but failing to find a woman who returns his interest. The film closes with superimposed text that states only one relationship resulted from the trip: one of the interpreters, Lilya, divorced her husband six months after filming, and moved to Minnesota with her daughter to marry Ernie.

Cast

Wikipedia

Open on TinyFalcon