Beginning

Yana lives with her husband David and her son George in a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation situated in the mountains of Georgia. When the community is attacked by a group of extremists, they find themselves facing a battle between the instinct of fearful retreat and the desire to fight for justice. At the same time, Yana encounters a growing dissatisfaction with the patriarchal structure of her religious community. With Arseni Khachaturan’s cinematography and Nicolás Jaar’s original film score, Beginning is a story about obedience and sacrifice within a silent world of repression and isolation. Winner of the San Sebastián Film Festival, it marks the auspicious feature-length debut of Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili.