April
ap'rili

Georgian writer/director Dea Kulumbegashvili's sophomore feature follows a hospital obstetrician named Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili) who faces professional accusations after the stillbirth of a premature baby she delivers in the film's opening shot. Her life is soon placed under scrutiny but this does not dissuade her from continuing to aid patients in rural villages at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains who are seeking abortions despite the legal prohibition against the procedure.

Shooting in the Academy aspect ratio in long, often unbroken takes, Kulumbegashvili's style is reminiscent of the work of Cristian Mungiu and Tsai Ming-liang, though her choice to shoot many of these long takes with handheld camera is baffling as it constantly makes you think about the operator rather than the content of the frames. Sukhitashvili's performance is rivetingly opaque, We're constantly leaning in to observe her, though we never fully understand what drives her—other than the oppressive grip of patriarchy, which is more than enough. Still, questions about her past are constantly raised that she doesn't want to answer them, so they remain intriguingly open.

The film depicts the female body undergoing many experiences, including giving birth and undergoing an abortion. The birth scene is unmistakably not simulated, and the film's level of verisimilitude seems some total that I was left wondering if the less graphically photographed procedure was also done "for real." I'm not sure the inclusion of a mysterious, surrealistic female body creature moving around slowly within abstract spaces added to movie or took away from its all-to grounded-in-reality imagery, but I know when I think back on this film, it won't be that creature that resonates in my mind, it will be Nina and the women she serves.