APRIL
After a newborn dies during delivery, the morals and professionalism of an OBGYN comes under scrutiny in Dea Kulumbegashvili’s visceral and haunting drama.
SHOWTIMES
JUN 6 | FRI
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SYNOPSIS
Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Kulumbegashvili’s follow-up to her acclaimed debut feature Beginning is anchored by Ia Sukhitashvili’s powerhouse performance as Nina, an obstetrician in rural Georgia who is accused of malpractice after delivering a stillborn baby. Nina is subsequently subjected to an investigation that threatens to expose her history of flaunting taboo by discreetly providing abortions, and finds herself struggling to bear up under the burden of condemnation from a community whose women desperately need her. Shot in precisely calibrated long takes that practically vibrate with tension by DP Arseni Khachaturan, who captures both the beauty and the ominous starkness of the Caucasus, with Matthew Herbert’s asynchronous score adding to the abiding air of anxious disorientation, Kulumbegashvili’s sophomore film invents a startlingly original audiovisual vocabulary to convey its visceral narrative of repression and resistance.
Director
WITH
Run Time
2 hours, 14 minutes
Released
April 25, 2025 (limited)
Distributed by
Metrograph Pictures
HEARING AND VISUAL ASSISTANCE
Assisted Listening
Subtitled / Open Captions
Country
United States
SUBTITLES
Georgian with English Subtitles
NOT RATED
Many of the films shown at The Ross are not rated due to the prohibitive cost of acquiring a rating from the Motion Picture Association of America. Consequently, as many of these films contain graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.
REVIEWS
“Not quite a thriller and not quite a horror movie, APRIL is all the more haunting for never pinning down the roots of Nina’s retreat from life while dedicating herself to improving the lives of others.”
“It is a disorienting, all-consuming sensorial experience and made all the much better to those willing to surrender to its mysteries.”
“An uncompromising, intensely felt panorama of female identities, agencies and desires under attack, APRIL manages to be both a work of controlled formal rigor and unleashed, often overwhelming human feeling.”