By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Dea Kulumbegashvili
Starring: Ana Nikolava | Ia Sukhitashvili | Kakha Kintsurashvili | Merab Ninidze | Roza Kancheishvili
Year: 2025
Running time: 134
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31350080
Michael says: “I thought I had already reviewed this one, but apparently that was not the case. I will say, this film both defies easy description, and my ability to rate it as I left the theater at the IFFBoston. I gave it 3 stars at the time, but after discussing it with Aaron for 20 minutes and letting it sit with me overnight, I now rank it 4 1/2 cats.
“It’s been over a month since I saw this viscerally upsetting Georgian film about a obstetrics doctor who travels the Georgian countryside in her spare time providing gynecological care and abortions to villagers to poor or too uneducated to provide for themselves. With alternatively horrific and beautiful imagery, director Dea Kulumbegashvili has created a complex, absorbing portrait of a woman who makes choices out of necessity and a desire to do good, that also find her operating in an ethically murky environment. By participating in random, sexual encounters, and viewing herself as a monstrous, scarred husk of a woman in her mind our protagonist defies categorization. Kulumbegashvili also uses lengthy shots barren, tempestuous, or beautiful landscapes similar to Nuri Bilge Ceylon, to illustrate the disparate states of living for this community. 4 1/2 cats
“Screened at the IFFBoston 2025, Somerville Theater”
Diane says: “Michael had written so highly of APRIL, that I thought it must have been nominated. Anyway…thanks for getting the screener, Vicki.
“This Georgian film demands our respect right from the opening scene. It would indeed have been a great nom for Sound Design, also Editing. I think much of its power derives from the antitheses set up in every couple of scenes: grotesquerie v. beauty, quiet v. chaos, darkness v. brilliance, love v. abuse…. One particularly long scene, in which the ‘main action’ of an abortion is (thankfully) off camera, is made compelling by a static shot of minuscule body movements, and the sounds of the world happening outside, including mooing cows. 5 cats.
“Now, next year, we can develop a list of our favorite abortion movies. Every one I can think of is really outstanding:
NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
4 MONTHS 3 WEEKS 2 DAYS
VERA DRAKE
APRIL”
Sara responds: “To add to Diane’s list:
HAPPENING (L’EVENEMENT), directed by Audrey Diwan (based upon book by Annie Ernaux), 2021″