Directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili
** OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2020 Toronto International Film Festival **
In her striking feature debut, Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili uses rigorous, compositionally complex frames to tell the devastating story of a persecuted family of Jehovah’s Witness missionaries from the perspective of a wife and mother. Following a shocking act of arson on the place of worship she and her husband have established in a remote village outside of Tbilisi, Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili) finds herself descending into a spiral of confusion and doubt, her suffering only exacerbated by her debased treatment at the hands of the local police. An occasionally harrowing depiction of women’s roles in both religious and secular society, Beginning announces a major new arrival on the world cinema scene. Synopsis courtesy New York Film Festival.
DIRECTOR: Dea Kulumbegashvili
WRITERS: Dea Kulumbegashvili, Rati Oneli
STARRING: Ia sukhitashvili, Rati Oneli, Kakha Kintsurashvili
MUSIC: Nicolas Jaar
TIFF Screenings
Fri, Sept. 11 at 9:30pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox
Sun, Sept. 13 at 6:00pm – Online at Bell Digital Cinema
Tue, Sept. 15 at 12:00pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox
