Beginning Review: A Woman Seeks Peace Amid Persecution in This Astonishing Debut Beginning Review: A Woman Seeks Peace Amid Persecution in This Astonishing Debut
Streaming on Mubi, Georgia s Oscar submission uses slow-cinema tropes to inspired, devastating ends, marking its first-time writer-director as a major talent.
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Running time: Running time: 125 MIN.
At the midpoint of her astounding first feature “Beginning,” Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili pulls off a brazen formalist coup that will either envelop you entirely in its world or freeze you out for good. On a glimmering autumn afternoon, put-together mother Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili) goes strolling with her pre-teen son Giorgi (Saba Gogichaishvili) in local woodlands, pausing at a leaf-carpeted clearing, where ringing birdsong and insect chatter fuse into a kind of white noise. Carefully, she lies down and closes her eyes. For six minutes, across one unbroken, tightly framed
Georgian/French Coproduction Beginning Acquired by MUBI
TBILISI: Dea Kulumbegashvili’s film
Beginning has been acquired by the streaming platform Mubi for the USA and UK (Svod Release). This Georgian/French coproduction was selected for Cannes 2020 Official Selection. Paris-based Wild Bunch International is handling the sales. The release date is 29 January 2021.
In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah’s Witness community is attacked by an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict, the familiar world of Yana, the wife of the community leader, slowly crumbles. Yana’s inner discontent grows as she struggles to make sense of her desires.