The debut feature from Georgian writer-director
Dea Kulumbegashvili, BEGINNING is an
unflinching drama about a Jehovah’s Witness who undergoes a dramatic crisis
of faith. Unsettling and visually arresting, Georgia’s official submission
for the 2021 Academy Awards marks the arrival of a stunning new talent in
world cinema.
Set in a provincial town at the foot of the Caucasus mountains, the film
tells the story of Yana (IIa Sukhitashvili), the wife of a Jehovah’s
Witness leader whose community is under attack from an extremist group. In
the midst of this conflict, and with her husband away, Yana’s inner
discontent grows as she struggles to make sense of the world around her.
Meanwhile, the intrusion of a local detective in her home has dramatic and
devastating consequences.
Told with sparse dialogue and exquisitely slow, observant camerawork that
recalls the films of Michael Haneke, Carlos Reygadas and Chantal Akerman,
BEGINNING is a provocative examination of trauma, religious
conflict and intolerance, scrutinising the interior life of a woman facing
both a marital and existential crossroads. A breakout from the Official Selection at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival,
Kulumbegashvili’s debut will shake you to your core.
