One of the most accomplished directorial debuts you’ll see all year will be arriving next week. Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning––recently named one of our favorite films of 2020 after catching it on the festival circuit––was selected as Georgia’s Oscar entry and MUBI picked it up for a release. Ahead of the January 29 debut, the first U.S. trailer has arrived for the film, which is executive produced by Carlos Reygadas and follows a woman’s harrowing journey in a rural community of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
C.J. Prince said in his review, “Beginning, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature, announces its director’s arrival on the arthouse scene with several bangs. In a lengthy opening shot, a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a rural Georgian community have their service interrupted by someone throwing molotov cocktails in their church. Everyone gets out alive, but the building gets reduced to ash and the (Orthodox Christian) townspeople won’t help them. Within several shots, Kulumbegashvili establishes the setting, story, tense mood, and her own precise style by shooting on 35mm in Academy ratio.”
Watch below.
Beginning arrives on MUBI on January 29.