EXCLUSIVE: Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s second feature April world premieres in competition at the Venice Film Festival later this week, before heading to Toronto and New York.
The drama about a rural obstetrician-gynaecologist who performs illegal abortions for women in need, follows Kulumbegashvili’s breakthrough debut feature Beginning, starring Ia Sukhitashvili as the wife of a Jehovah’s Witness leader disillusioned with the patriarchal religious community.
Set in and around Kulumbegashvili’s hometown of Lagodekhi at the foot of the Greater Caucasus mountains, that film won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell for Best Film in 2020 and was also feted by TIFF and Tribeca among others, heralding the director as a talent to watch.
April sees Kulumbegashvili return to Lagodekhi and reunite with Sukhitashvili as well as producers Ilan Amouyal and David Zerat at Paris-based First Picture, who were joined by Luca Guardagnino (Frenesy), Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Gabriele Moratti, Alexandra Rossi at (Memo Films) and Archil Gelovani at Independent Film Project.
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