THE STORY – Nina, an OB-GYN, faces accusations after a newborn’s death. Her life undergoes scrutiny during an investigation. She persists in her medical duties, determined to provide care others hesitate to offer, despite risks.
THE CAST – Ia Sukhitashvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili & Merab Ninidze
THE TEAM – Dea Kulumbegashvili (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 134 Minutes
Georgian director/writer Dea Kulumbegashvili is unflinching, often painstakingly so, in her vision with “April,” a slow-build film about an OB-GYN doctor facing scrutiny for her practices. Deploying many tactics similar to her first feature, “Beginning,” Kulumbegashvili creates an uneasy-filled environment with scenes that seem to go on endlessly, sometimes so long that you forget what the core story is about. It’s a film that will not work for everyone, but it has more effective results when she zeroes in on her protagonist’s work.
Utilizing a square aspect ratio, Kulumbegashvili reduces any distractions to the side so that viewers can focus directly on the visuals. She begins by showing us a naked, deformed woman standing in water in a dark room. All we can hear is her heavy breathing and young girls laughing and playing in the background. We’ll see this figure a few times in the film, and while we don’t get any explanation, we can infer that it’s related to Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili) and how she sees herself in the world.
Soon, the peaceful sounds of water are replaced with the bloody sights and painful sounds of childbirth (and it looks like a real delivery, too). Unfortunately, the child dies soon after labor. Once the father complains, an investigation is opened up on Nina, the lead OB-GYN specialist at a rural hospital, to see if any wrongdoing on her part led to the child’s death. She remains steadfast that she did everything right and that there was no time to determine if a C-section would have been possible. Despite the trials and tribulations, Sukhitashvili approaches her role with ease, keeping a steady, level head in the face of accusations.
Nina is a peculiar character and often hard to pin down with her actions. She’s an advocate for women’s reproductive rights and risks her livelihood to provide services to the women in this small town (many of the services she provides are illegal). She’ll go to people’s homes and perform abortions, or she’ll advocate for the use of birth control pills among young women who aren’t yet ready to be mothers. The long takes are most effective when seeing Nina’s work, including an unfiltered scene of her performing an abortion on a young deaf-mute girl, whose shrieks and shaking legs only add to the severity of the moment. Her interactions with men are more complex to predict, like when she offers a ride to a hitchhiker and later performs oral sex or her often tense conversations with her colleague and ex-partner David (Kakha Kintsurashvili). Ultimately, it’s hard to understand and feel fully connected to this woman, but Sukhitashvili is compelling to watch nonetheless.
The most considerable strife many will have with this film is its pacing. Even if you’re interested in Nina’s story, the many long, drawn-out scenes keep this film from being more impactful. As previously mentioned, these points of view are far more engaging when we see Nina’s work. But neverending shots of fields, driving, and hospital hallways – no matter how good they look – over a 134-minute runtime are challenging to get through.
Even if Kulumbegashvili’s “April” doesn’t work for everyone, it’s more evident than ever that the Georgian director has found her specific style and isn’t changing it anytime soon. Cutting down on so many long takes would have benefitted this film more. Still, regardless, she manages to tell a compelling story about women’s rights, which is increasingly important in our world.
