Dea Kulumbegashvili’s first feature-length film, “Beginning” (2020), drew cinema-lovers’ attention to Georgia. It became a real sensation and won many prestigious international awards.
Feminist film has emerged as one of the leading trends in contemporary cinema but it must also be said that such works are often pathetic, artificial or exhausted. Conversely, “Beginning” encompasses more than just a film made with an “easy-to-sell topic.” In a situation where modern filmmaking is focused on the profitability of the product, making a film with a high cinematic standard is a bold and risky step.
Feminist issues and the burden of women under patriarchy-the central problem raised in it - is also supplemented by secondary and significant data. For example, along with being a victim of patriarchy, Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili) is also a representative of a religious minority. Such details make the character more alive and natural.
The screenwriters (Dea Kulumbegashvili and Rati Oneli) conducted thorough work not only on the personal depths of the main character, her past or the peculiarities of her actions but also gave a decisive role to the creation of the environment in which this character exists. This does not mean the visible environment, which is also worth highlighting but rather the abstract space that surrounds Yana like a transparent box. This woman is within a complex environment, problems surround her like brick walls, which creates a claustrophobic closed world and slowly suffocates her.
The director did not lag behind modernity in the style of narration and also played a decisive role in shaping the mood of the film. Dea Kulumbegashvili has often been compared to Michael Haneke and Cristian Mungiu for her chosen narrative style. The film uses a slow editing pace and static camerawork (except for a few scenes) - the main characteristics of slow cinema. Although the slow cinema technique is not familiar to most viewers and is accepted for its rhythm, we still see a dynamic in "Beginning" that is balanced by the tragedy depicted, the empty environment and the cold emotions.
The narrative style perfectly suits the main idea of the film, as it rejects the signs characteristic of commercial cinema. Instead of constant physical oppression, the use of obscene terms in each episode, rapid editing and frequent changes of angles, the language of slow cinema is used, showing the action from a single point of view, without cuts. The offence to a woman is expressed in verbal humiliation, deprivation of rights and reduction of her role. Yana is perceived as an auxiliary attribute for David (Rati Oneli). For him, his wife is more of a thing than a “child of God,” a human.
Yana is a woman who must survive. She feels this, but at first this feeling is unclear. It remains a feeling of approaching something strange, and opening of the door would help her understand what it is but it is locked. No matter how paradoxical it may sound, the key to this door is Kakha Kintsurashvili’s character. Through him, the awakening for survival begins.
But how does the awakening occur? In the scene of sexual violence. Specifically, a detailed observation of Yana’s actions reveals the character’s transformation. At first, she resists the abuser – she punches, tries to escape, moves her legs, but then stops. She stops not because she gives up, not because she is tired, or, as her husband accuses her, because she likes what is happening to her, but because she starts to think. For a viewer who has not seen the film, all this may sound strange, but Yana's catharsis occurs at this very moment. The main difficulty, of course, lies in Ia Sukhitashvili’s acting, who expressed the character's inner explosion, such an emotional and full of feelings state in statics.
The rape scene is one of the most memorable and distinctive cinematically. Of course, this is primarily thanks to the cameraman (Arsen Khachaturian) and the actors but the main thing is the director herself. Dea Kulumbegashvili presented this episode in such a way that the viewer is forced to observe in detail the terrible spectacle that is happening before his eyes. The director compels us to create forced discomfort for ourselves. She hit the target!
The director slowly prepares us for the final discomfort, the final confession. We know that violence is a concomitant process of her life for the main character. First, her father violated on her, when he threw her out in the cold of February; her husband also violated on her with many words, including worthlessness; the beloved son also abused her when he ignored his mother's words or behaved badly in class with other students, although the author offered us the final chord much more terrifyingly.
Yana slowly approaches her catharsis point, completely unconsciously but she still follows this path with emotional attraction. After the abuser's first visit, Yana is constantly tense. The path taken towards the river (the place of future violence) after opening the empty door at night reminds me of Jesus' path to Golgotha. He also knew what pain awaited him but none of them knew what kind of pain it would be.
Biblical symbols are one of the keys in this film, due to the main characters’ connection with the religion. They reach their peak in the last scene of the film. From a hunting environment, Kakha Kintsurashvili's character finds himself in a drought-stricken land. According to biblical wisdom, fruit cannot flourish in dry land and the transformation of the oppressor into sand reminds me of the sand that flowed from the wound in Jesus' side, which brings us back to Golgotha and its final end. Having been turned into sand, the disappearance of this character's body into the cracks of the dry land seems like a chord full of hope, because nothing will grow from there.
Gvantsa Nozadze
