Gondola: a dialogue-free romantic fable, Veit Helmer’s lovely little film is set in a sleepy and peaceful Georgian valley, with its extremes connected by a cable car. The two young women who operate it build a relationship, even if their contact is restricted to a brief moment when their cars cross, and the little gestures they leave to each other at both ends. Even though a Georgian village is a pretty specific place, the lack of dialogue makes the story universal and accessible. The two actresses who play the protagonists are charming: Mathilde Irrmann, as the newcomer, somewhat more naïve and bright-eyed, and Nini Soselia, as the veteran who dreams of leaving; Zuka Papuashvili plays their brutish boss. Cinematographer Goga Devdariani’s images of the locale are beautiful and bucolic, and the actresses are also captured nicely. Editors Moritz Geiser, Nikoloz Gulua, and Iordanis Karaisaridis give the film a nice pace and effectively create intimacy with the protagonists, even when they are not in the same place. Sound designer Matz Müller’s work is crucial, as the film lacks dialogue but has a rich sound landscape; the music, composed by Malcolm Arison and Sóley Stefánsdóttir, is an important piece of that puzzle.