Beginning received mostly favourable reviews from critics, with the direction compared to that of Austrian director Michael Haneke.[1]
Plot
Yana, the wife of a Jehovah's Witness religious leader, David, becomes disillusioned with her life inside a patriarchal religious community after its Kingdom Hall is firebombed by violent extremists.[2] This event is the starting point of the film, which focuses on Yana's interior life and emotional deterioration after David apparently does not understand what she is trying to express, and repeatedly says that something is wrong with her. David reports the firebombing to the police, who pressure him to delete the security footage of the incident. He decides to present himself to the elders of the church and ask them for funding for the construction of a new Kingdom Hall, leaving Yana alone with their son Giorgi.
A detective from Tbilisi calls on Yana, ostensibly to ask questions about the fire at the church, but his questions become intrusive and personal, including about her sexual life with her husband. He asks if she feels scared, to which she answers "Yes". He asks her to sit on the couch with him, before forcing her hand into his trousers. Shortly afterwards he apologizes and leaves. Yana heads to the police, but is informed by the officer there that no detective from Tbilisi has arrived. Later at night, the detective ambushes Yana near a river and sexually assaults her. He briefly appears to consider killing her with a rock, but decides against it and leaves.
Yana visits her mother and sister. Her mother tells her a story about when Yana was a child and used to cry through the night, which resulted in her drunk father kicking her and her mother out, forcing them to spend the night under a nearby tree. David returns home, but in the morning Yana finds him listening to an audio recording of the questions she was asked earlier by the detective. She tells him that she was raped, but he does not believe her due to the deceptive nature of the audio.
David and Yana attend a series of baptisms, including that of Giorgi. On the way home, David suggests that they should move to Tbilisi to start over. At home, Yana blends a large number of pills into a smoothie and makes Giorgi drink it. When David asks what has happened, she tells him that she has killed their child and refuses to look at him. Elsewhere, the detective from earlier, identified as Alex, is seen hunting with a group. He lays down on the ground and appears to turn to dust.
The film received mostly favourable reviews from critics, with the direction compared to that of Austrian director Michael Haneke.[1] It was very well received at the New York Film Festival, and IONCINEMA said the film was “a gruelling masterwork...reminiscent of the sleeping rage teased out in the Romanian New Wave offerings" and compared Kulumbegashvili to the Romanian directors Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu”.[9]
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