Downloaded from YTS.MX
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
BEGINNING
BE GRATEFUL TO GOD, AS HE IS THE KINDEST
Come in, come in.
Go sit there.
Go on.
Sit down.
Don't you dare turn around.
You naughty boys.
Does your hand hurt?
You're looking out the window? Turn and face the wall.
Come in.
How are you?
Take a seat.
Hello, how are you?
Go take a seat.
Come in, come in.
Hello. Please stay seated.
I'm well, thank you.
Please have a seat.
What did they do?
They were playing football and got all dirty.
Little devils.
They wouldn't stop.
Come in, come in.
Take a seat.
How are you?
Hello.
How is your wife?
Hello, take a seat.
Hello.
Take a seat.
Let's close the blinds.
And the door.
Don't make a sound.
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters.
How are you today?
I'm fine, thank you.
Today we're going to talk about an important subject.
And we'll share valuable insights with each other.
Let's begin our conversation
with a seemingly simple story,
told in the Bible.
We all know who Abraham is, right?
What do you think Abraham is doing in this picture?
Does he really intend to kill Isaac, his only son?
What does the Bible say?
The Bible says...
"Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it."
"He bound his son Isaac hand and foot
"and put him on the altar on top of the wood."
"Then Abraham reached out his hand
"and took the knife
"to kill his son."
"He raised his knife..."
"..and waited."
"But Jehovah's angel called from the heavens and said,
" 'Abraham!' "
" 'Here I am!'
"answered Abraham.
" 'Do not harm the boy...' "
" '..and do nothing to him...
" 'for now I know that you are God-fearing...' "
" '..because you have not withheld
" 'your only son
" 'from God.' "
What is the moral of this story?
What does the Bible teach us?
Why did Jehovah ask Abraham
to sacrifice
his only son?
Who would like to answer?
Sister Lena,
since you raised your hand...
Jehovah wanted to test Abraham,
to make his faith...
- Stronger, right? - Yes, stronger.
That's right,
thank you.
You may sit down.
Now, building on this story,
how should a true Christian behave in everyday life?
Do any of you...
Don't panic!
Keep the children away from the window!
Stay inside! Don't go out!
Don't panic.
Calm down!
Stay calm! We'll get out!
We need air in here!
Somebody break down the door!
Giorgi.
Giorgi!
Come.
Come!
What's going on here?
There's a fire.
- What? - There's a fire.
No kidding.
- Leave it open. - Just for tonight.
It's stifling in here.
They were caught on the security cameras.
A detective came over from Tbilisi. He told me to delete the footage.
What a nerve.
What if you don't do it?
He told me to lie low.
Apparently, we bother the people around here.
The hell with it.
Let's go to bed.
What's wrong?
Nothing.
Did you see their faces on the footage?
David?
What?
Ask for a transfer.
Where to?
The police won't do anything.
They "won't find them".
It's a bit late tonight, no?
I tell you what - let's get a good night's sleep.
First thing tomorrow, we'll run away.
Giorgi has no friends.
I'm uncomfortable going out.
What do you mean? You grew up here!
I'm fed up, too.
I have to solve this first, I have no choice.
Then we'll decide.
Come in. Come in.
Can't get to sleep?
Come, sneak into bed.
Hurry up.
You spoil him.
Come on, get in.
If you go on like this, he'll never become a man.
He's scared.
I understand, but how can he ever grow up?
When I was his age, I was running on the rooftops.
Let's get you a kitten.
So you leave him alone.
Come on, don't be angry.
I'm not.
Then come to me.
Come on.
Come, my kitty.
Can't you act like a normal person and just tell me what you want?
We agreed on this.
I didn't agree.
You said you needed seven years...
..for your career. I did as you asked.
Every time something happens, you say the same thing,
"That's it, we're moving. That's it, we're moving."
It's a perfect time for your little show.
Go ahead.
I have an awful headache.
Take this.
Give me time.
I need to think.
I'll find a solution.
When we met,
you knew what kind of man I was,
my ambitions, my plans.
You wanted to be with me, right?
Yes...
I did.
There you go.
What's your plan?
Yana, what do you think?
I'll get up early tomorrow and calculate the costs.
In a month, we'll have a new prayer house.
At the congress, I'll try to convince the elders to help.
Go by yourself.
No.
I want to be alone.
They expect us to come as a family.
I won't go alone.
Come with me.
You will rest, meet people...
Meet people!
While you discuss your construction plans
I'll stay in the hotel room.
Who's forcing you to stay in the room?
I want to be alone.
Then be alone at the hotel.
Please.
Why do you do this?
Can't you support me like a normal person?
One week.
You're determined to ruin me, aren't you?
You can't help yourself.
You've mastered that.
I can't go on like this.
Life goes by...
as if I weren't there.
You need something to do.
Let's find you a job.
I don't know.
Then what do you know?
You knew you couldn't be an actress and my wife at the same time.
That's not it.
Then what is it?
Tell me exactly.
Something's wrong with me.
It's as if I were waiting...
..for something to start, or to end.
You're overreacting.
You're a very emotional person, you know that.
Especially under stress.
Come with me and rest.
You don't believe me.
I look into the mirror and a stranger looks back.
Please don't start this.
I can't handle it.
If you want to talk to someone...
Counselling or therapy, whatever...
It's not a problem, I'll help you find someone.
But let's keep it between us.
All I need from you now
is your support.
All right?
Nini,
what do you ask Jehovah for?
To make me a good child.
What does it take to be good?
I have to behave well.
What else?
Nika, what do you think?
You have to behave well and do what God
or your mum and dad tell you.
Good. That's right.
Here's another question -
how can we protect ourselves from evil?
We shouldn't give in to evil out of fear
and stay on God's path.
Correct. The Bible says Satan can take the form of light,
the form of the Angel of Light,
and trick us into doing what God dislikes.
Yes, you're right.
And we should pray.
You're good kids. Now, on page 9.
Saba, little Saba!
Read, please.
"I am the Lord thy God..."
Wait a minute! Let him read!
"And you shall..."
"And you shall have no other..."
Elene, why is that funny?
"Before me..."
Just a minute!
I really want to know, what's so funny?
Is this how you want to prepare for your baptism?
- Yes. - No.
Who said yes?
Nini.
Enough. Close your books and leave them on the table.
Good job!
You can go home now.
Be careful crossing the street.
What was that all about, can you explain?
Nothing, I swear on your life!
I told you never to swear on my life.
You promised to take me to the toy store.
Not yet.
Come.
Why did we get off the bus?
I'd like to walk a bit.
Come, follow me.
Stay close to me.
Don't fall behind.
Walk close to me.
I can't put it together. Help me.
You can do it.
You're a big boy.
It's not coming together.
Why not?
It's missing a piece.
Let's do it in the morning.
Come sit with me for a while.
Please, let's finish it and play once.
No, it's late.
You need to shower.
No, please.
You want to go to sleep all dirty like a piglet?
I'm not dirty.
That's enough. Let's go.
Come, sweetheart.
Is your husband at home?
No.
I'm from the police department.
I'd like to talk to you.
What about?
I just have a few questions regarding the fire.
Can I come in?
Come in.
This way, please.
Are you reading this?
No.
I'm preparing children for baptism.
Really?
Do the kids enjoy it?
I can give you my husband's phone number.
I have it.
Why don't you call him, then?
I want to talk to you.
Did you watch the footage?
What footage?
From the security cameras.
No.
Your husband...
is a stubborn man, isn't he?
I don't interfere with his business.
What is his business?
He's busy building a prayer house.
It is pointless to talk. No-one will be arrested.
This is not the first incident.
The local police know who they are, but no-one is ever arrested.
Do you know...who they are?
No.
I didn't see them.
Do you suspect anyone?
I can't point fingers like that.
But we can't live like this.
I can't let my son go out.
Why? Did something happen?
No, but it might.
Isn't your husband concerned about this?
Of course he is.
Look, you are a believer.
They have their own faith.
Trust me, we can find an arrangement.
You also need to understand them.
Please, ask your husband to withdraw the complaint.
He makes his own decisions.
Of course.
But if I were you...
..I'd use my charms to convince him.
Do you like living here?
Yes, we do.
You've got a really nice place.
Your own little paradise.
I envy you.
Does your husband fuck you on that couch?
Don't look at me as if you were a virgin.
Does he fuck you?
If you don't leave right now...
What if I don't?
Will you sit next to me?
No.
Why not?
You think I'll hurt you?
Why would you?
Do I need a reason?
What does your husband like best?
What do you want from me?
You know what?
Let's play a game.
I'll ask questions, you answer yes or no.
You can add details if you wish.
Does he fuck you on this couch?
- No. - Lie.
Tell me the truth and I'll go.
Does he fuck you on this couch?
Yes.
See?
We can share things with each other.
You're sick.
Please.
Don't pretend you're a frigid religious fanatic.
How many times a week does he fuck you?
What is this for?
You want to change the subject?
Fine.
Does he prefer blowjobs or fucking you in the ass?
Does he like blowjobs?
No.
Think again.
Does he like you to blow him?
Yes.
And you?
Do you like it too?
Yes.
Say it.
"I like to blow my husband."
I like to blow my husband.
He likes it too.
See? You're opening up.
What about your asshole?
Does he ever ask for that?
Yes, he does.
Are you scared of me?
Yes.
Come.
You know what I'm going to do?
No.
Anything I want.
It's so nice for two people just to sit together.
I'm sorry.
Yana, aren't you hungry?
Should we break for lunch?
I'm hungry.
Not yet.
Giorgi.
Are you hungry?
Mum, can I get this?
- No. - Please!
I said no. Behave yourself.
Come on.
Go play with the kids.
But don't go too far!
I wouldn't let him go.
You spoil him too much.
Who are those children?
I'll be right back.
Excuse me.
Good morning.
How can I help you?
Where do I get a ticket?
- What ticket? - For the queue.
Oh, that.
We don't use tickets. It's a live queue.
How else can I help you?
I'm looking for the detective.
Which detective?
He came from Tbilisi.
- When? - Two days ago.
Nobody came from Tbilisi.
Do you know his name?
- No. - What case is he on?
- Do you want to file a complaint? - No, thank you.
Is there anything else...?
No, thank you.
You're not reading.
Yes, I am.
No, you're not.
I am.
What's written on that page?
You lied to me.
I did not.
So, tell me what you just read.
The whole page?
Whatever you read.
It's about an old man taken to heaven by flying horses.
Flying horses?
What does your father say about children who lie?
God will punish me.
So?
But that's what it says.
Don't lie.
You're such a good boy.
I never lie to you.
You shouldn't lie to me either.
Horses can't fly.
Why do you think that?
I've never seen a horse fly.
Have you?
If it was Jehovah's will...
..do you think a horse could fly?
If it was Jehovah's will, then yes.
Jehovah can do anything, can't he?
Yes.
Please read this page.
Your father will test you when he comes back.
Can I go out first?
No, it's dangerous.
But everyone is outside.
We'll go out tomorrow.
- Please. - No.
Let's play a game.
Move over.
Sit up straight.
Close your eyes.
Imagine what you'd do if you went out.
I don't want to.
Close your eyes.
Dad lets me go out.
Don't be stubborn. Close your eyes.
Imagine what you'd do outside.
I'd play football.
- Who would you play with? - My friends.
What are your friends' names?
All right.
Who is the goalkeeper?
Me. It's always me.
Why is that?
The others don't want to.
All right.
What else do you do?
We chase dogs.
Dogs?
Yes, dogs from the neighbourhood.
Good. Open your eyes.
Mum.
Mum, wake up.
Did I scare you?
No.
I was just kidding. I'm alive.
Yana, come in.
Watch your step.
Come on.
What happened? Poor child.
He's sleepy.
Come, let's put you to bed.
Get in carefully.
Don't wake the baby.
Gently.
That's right.
How does it feel to be a mother?
I don't know yet.
What was the rush?
Are you still going to school?
No.
She's transferring to a technical school.
No, I'm not. I found a job.
Who'll take care of the baby?
Who would if I'm in school?
Does he eat well?
Yes.
Does his father help?
No.
He hasn't realised yet he has a child.
He hasn't even come to see him.
I'm going out for a while.
Don't you want to spend time with your sister?
Just for an hour, while you talk.
Be back in an hour.
Some guy was waiting outside.
I know.
But who cares what I think?
Why did you let her go?
What can I do?
I keep telling her she needs to study
so she can support herself.
But she doesn't listen.
She never did.
Now, I'm left with the baby.
Drink your coffee. It'll get cold.
Don't blow on it.
Make a wish.
Why?
So I can read your cup.
I don't want you to.
Your husband isn't watching.
Don't you want to know the future?
Won't you tell me what happened?
I don't know.
Please tell me.
Did you meet someone?
No.
You wouldn't tell me even if you did.
You and your sister are the same.
I didn't meet anyone.
Don't tell him.
There's no need.
Whatever it is...
..especially if it's not serious.
Your husband doesn't need to know.
Mum?
Why do we never talk about Dad?
What is there to talk about?
Was he that bad to you?
No.
But he was no angel either.
Why didn't you divorce him?
Life was different, back then.
Who would've married a second-hand woman with a child?
You know...
..when you were born, you confused day and night.
You would sleep all day and cry at night.
One night your father came back from work.
He was drunk and exhausted.
You wouldn't let him sleep.
So, he kicked me out with you.
It was February, it was snowing.
I carried you out...
..and sat down under that tree.
In five minutes, you were calm.
You were catching snowflakes with your mouth.
You liked it.
You fell asleep at the break of dawn.
I was so hurt by your father...
..I wept all night.
You enjoyed being outside.
You slept peacefully all day long.
Your father called you Sleeping Beauty.
Your father was not easy to live with.
But I never thought of divorcing him.
We tried to love each other as best we could.
Lie down.
No, I have to go.
Rest a bit.
I can't stay.
Next time can we go to Dad's grave?
Don't worry, it's me.
I'm so tired,
I could fall asleep right here and crush you.
You're heavy.
I know.
I've settled everything.
In a month, we'll have a new building.
Well done.
Did you rest well without me?
- What's the matter? - Nothing.
Didn't you miss me at all?
I did.
You're an awful person.
I love you.
I love you too.
Go back to sleep.
I'll check on Giorgi.
And you?
Do you like it too?
Yes.
Say it.
"I like to blow my husband."
I like to blow my husband.
He likes it too.
See? You're opening up.
What about your asshole?
Does he ever ask for that?
Yes, he does.
Are you scared of me?
Yes.
Come.
See? You're opening up.
What about your asshole?
Does he ever ask for that?
Yes, he does.
Are you scared of me?
Yes.
Come.
What is this?
Sit down.
Is there more to this?
I wanted to tell you.
Tell me.
He came here twice.
And?
He raped me.
What the fuck do you mean?
Tell me what happened.
What should I tell you?
How could you let him in?
It happened outside.
Where exactly?
What difference does it make?
I'm telling you he raped me.
What difference does it make?
Isn't this your voice on the recording?
Am I imagining things?
That's me.
And you call this rape?
Who were you when we met?
I created you, I dragged you out of your misery.
A lousy actress.
Is this how you thank me?
What if they send this to the elders?
Have me punished.
Punish you?
Tell me everything.
I'm listening.
Sorry, is this room occupied?
I'm waiting for the chief.
You were told to wait here?
Yes.
All right, wait, then.
You're meeting the chief at this hour?
Yes.
Are you sure he's coming back?
I don't know. I want to withdraw my case.
Which case?
A complaint.
All right, if you were told to wait here, then wait.
Let me out here.
Giorgi...
Want to get out, Giorgi?
Should I take your change of clothes?
Ready?
Yes.
Let's start the questions?
Nikusha, tell us what heaven is.
Heaven is...
a good place.
When you do good things,
things that God likes,
God lets you go there.
What happens there?
It's a place for good people.
Nobody can bring bad things there.
- What is hell? - Hell is
when you kill someone,
or if you rob someone,
that is hell.
God will punish you when you die.
God will punish you.
We should protect all living things, because when God tells us
not to misbehave...
When you die, there will be two doors,
one leads to hell, the other to heaven.
If you did good deeds, you go to heaven,
if bad deeds, then to hell.
Hell is when you burn in fire.
When bad things are done.
For example...
Those people...
I think...
Being alone.
What else?
And heaven?
I think it's a coffin.
- You think so? - A coffin.
Why?
I don't know.
Saba,
what happens to a human soul after death?
A human soul?
What is hell?
Hell is when you burn in fire.
Also...
What is heaven?
It's a place where people
who never sinned
or sinned only once go.
Only once?
Maybe three times.
No more.
- Have you sinned? - Yes.
For example?
Nothing serious.
Nothing big.
All right, children!
Go.
Send Anna.
Are you ready?
Nervous?
Close your eyes.
Ready?
Close your eyes.
Grab your underwear first!
Fuck off!
It's mine!
Hey! Come with us!
Hey, girls, come on!
Yana, come with me for a moment.
Yana.
Is Giorgi asleep?
Yes.
They offered me a promotion.
A position at the head office.
When the building is done,
should we move to Tbilisi?
You could work in a dubbing studio with children.
David...
I want to forgive you.
You won't be able to.
Then what should we do?
Yana, nothing makes sense without you.
I just want us to start over.
That's what I want, too, David.
Wash your feet properly.
Both.
Show me your face.
Turn.
Here, drink this.
- I don't want it. - Drink it.
It's good, go ahead.
How come he went to bed so early?
I killed him.
Yana.
You missed it!
Alex! Don't fall behind!
Hello, everybody, this is Luca Guadagnino
and I have the great privilege and pleasure
to introduce to this conversation
the great and wonderful Georgian film director Déa Kulumbegashvili.
I was invited to join the festival of San Sebastián this year,
this very difficult year for cinema, 2020,
as the president of the jury of the international competition,
and once the movie Beginning started to fill the screen
of the very big main theatre at the San Sebastián Film Festival,
the power of the imagery of Beginningand the hypnotic qualities of it
immediately had us, all the viewers in the theatre, arrested by this.
There is no doubt that, watching Beginning,
it's a transformative experience for any viewers
and that, with this movie, we have to salute and welcome
the affirmation of an incredible talent for cinema, in Déa.
So, cut to the chase, let's start the conversation, my dear Déa.
I'm a big fan.
And I'm proud, because, all my life, I've been fans of directors,
so I'm happy to have a new, great director to admire in you.
Your experience in cinema has been very steady and very strong,
because you've been presenting your work in Cannes,
when you were doing short films.
And, through the great support of festivals,
you worked on the development of Beginning.
You've been attending the Cinéfondation in Paris of the Cannes Film Festival,
you've been supported by the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab
and you've been presenting yourself, through works and labs,
in many important European festivals around the world.
Beginning, among these great producers,
has also the support
of the great Mexican film-maker, Carlos Reygadas.
So, my first question to you is such -
what do you think is the importance, if there is any,
for film festivals in the development of a language
for a film-maker like yourself,
at large, for cinema?
Given that we've been experiencing
a lot of difficulties for film festivals this year.
Well, first of all, thank you.
It's an honour that you're presenting my film.
And it's a pleasure to talk to you.
Well, if we talk about film festivals as the place where we present our films,
I think that it's different from the film festivals,
or the platforms affiliated with the film festivals
for the development of the project,
or the films which are still in development.
I think that festivals are really vital for the films that we make,
because I think that, first of all,
it keeps this nature of celebrating cinema.
It's a place where we can celebrate cinema, first of all,
and unfortunately, not many places are left, for, like...
Less and less cinemas are actually places where we celebrate cinema,
because less and less cinemas exist around the world.
I know that they're closing every year.
And I think that some festivals give us the opportunity first
to really experience films with really, like, film lovers and cinephiles.
And it has a great importance for me, personally.
And as for the platforms where you can develop the script or work on a project,
of course, it's very important for young directors like myself,
and I got huge support from all these places
and I was able to talk to people
and, as with mentors, so with young directors like myself,
which is very important, to exchange ideas and to really be there
and to feel that people all around the world are really, like...
having all these, like, ideas they, like, cannot not make into films.
It's important to share that energy.
But what really matters, while you go to these places,
I think is to really still listen to yourself, always.
It's great to talk to others
and to people who have much more experience than you have,
but it's important to always go back and to listen to yourself.
I agree. That's a very thoughtful answer on your end,
because, many times, people don't understand
the position of the film-maker, the director, the directress,
is that of someone who has to understand how to bring out,
from himself, herself, themselves,
what they know they want to bring on-screen.
More than for the beauty of the collaborative process of film-making -
and we'll talk about that in a minute -
this is...it's really, as you said beautifully,
a way to understand what you want, in the first place.
So, Beginning is a very translucent,
crystal clear and, at the same time, opaque portrait of a woman in crisis,
within a world in crisis.
I would like to start getting into the movie
by talking about this great character of Yana,
that is the centre of the movie
and that, in a way, with all her facets,
represents also the incredible complexity of this movie.
Can you tell us about where you started thinking of Yana,
how you developed Yana,
and how you communicated with your incredible performer
the way in which you two both together built Yana
as a character alive on-screen?
Well, actually, the first image that I wrote
was the image in the end of the film when she sits at the table
and she turns and tells her husband that she killed their child
and then she turns away.
And I knew immediately when I was writing -
this was the first thing I wrote in the script -
and I knew that she does not turn back,
neither to her husband, nor to the camera and the audience.
And this moment is almost irritatingly long,
because we demand from her that she owes us explanation,
she needs to turn to us, but she doesn't do it.
And I knew that it was a central and the most important moment of the film
and I knew that the film started from there, for me, in a way.
But before I even started to write,
and I think now I can say that this is probably my process so far,
with my little experience,
that when I already have the entire film in my head,
this is when I can start to write.
So, until that, I just make hundreds of notes.
And I know that I am getting somewhere,
but it's just so...all over the place,
because I know that there is something, but I don't know what.
But I knew that it was this character, it was about her,
and that it was the story of this family and, uh...
But, Yana, I should say that when I was talking to people
in the process of development...
I was getting notes on, "Oh, she's not likeable,"
and, "How do you make her more likeable or more sympathetic?
"We need to like her more,"
but I knew for sure that that was not what I needed to do,
because I liked her.
- And I was... - I do like her too.
And that was very important feedback for me
and it was interesting for me to hear,
because I started to think that maybe, as humans,
we really think that we need to understand everything about another person
and every single... justify everything that they do
in order to like them.
Like, can't we just like each other as humans,
like, just because that another is a human as well?
So, I actually was thinking that opacity
was a very important quality that I really wanted to grasp.
And the more comments I was getting into this direction,
the more I was sure that I wanted the character
to have its own autonomous being,
which means that no matter how well do we know people who we live with
or people in our own families, we don't know everything about them.
And I really wanted to grasp this not knowing
like, something which we don't know about her,
because that would give her some kind of power also,
in relationship with an audience.
Which, I think it's very interesting, because the tale of womanhood,
unfortunately, becomes more and more somehow simplified
to the level of empowerment,
a banal form of empowerment, or victimisation.
And, yet, in your movie,
this incredible character of Yana,
who is portraited, portraited by a woman, yourself,
and is somehow neither one nor the other.
She's not a victim and she's not simply someone
who is going to fight against a sense of disempowerment
to get some power for herself.
What is Yana kind of dealing with? She's an actress, she is an outlier,
she lives on the margin of a community
and she lives within this community at the margin of the same community,
so it's a double set of being an outsider.
She's a mother but, at the same time,
she feels to have the impetus not to be a mother.
And in that, we can see that very clearly in her relationship with her own mother.
She's caught in a world of violence, of male violence,
whether it's a psychological and subtly performed violence,
or a very out there, out there violence,
but at the same time, she is not passive to that,
or she does not kind of surrender to that
in a way that is functional to the narrative,
actually the opposite. Can we talk about all this?
Well, that's why I, when I'm writing, or I think when you're making a film,
I am very scared and I don't want to bring down things to ideas or symbols,
because then, when something stands for something else in the film,
it's not interesting for me any more,
because I need to grasp the truth of the moment.
I need to get somewhere which I can feel that there is something which is truthful
now happening in front of the camera.
So, even when I finish writing the script, and then, when I work with the actors,
I do a lot of rehearsals,
and I do a lot of workshopping the script with them.
And I am always rewriting the script,
when I work with the actors,
because some of the things that I write may be too theoretical.
I start to remove so many things,
the moment I start to work with the actors
and we work maybe for six months,
like, it was a rehearsal workshop, kind of...like, room,
where we would just gather and work and talk.
And I really wanted to get to know the main actress,
because I think that she brought a lot to the character,
in terms of interpreting
or not interpreting the character at the same time.
What she's holding back was sometimes more interesting for me
than what she's actually presenting to the camera.
So, I really needed to get to know her, like, how is she as a person,
because I do believe the camera reads who we are as humans,
despite us also being... She's a great actress,
but the camera gets beyond that also.
So, you agree with Bertolucci when he said that a movie is also a documentary
on the actors portraying the characters?
Yes, I do believe in that. I do believe that.
I do believe that there is something behind,
which, it's not up to me, it's not up to actors,
it's just something intangible that happens and the camera grasps it.
And I always want to allow myself to be able to grasp those moments.
And I want to be very prepared so that I can step back
and allow maybe what I call cinema
to start to happen in front of the camera.
So, when I was... I did not talk about any of these ideas with the actors.
I did not want them to think about ideas at all.
But, in my head, I was constantly thinking that,
"Okay, what does it mean to be a mother?"
and I think that, because I have two sisters,
mother and grandmother and I grew up in a family with many women,
they're a huge inspiration of my work, for my work.
And my sister was helping us on set
and she was pregnant with her second child at the same time.
And I used to just go and talk to her also a lot.
And the child in the film is my nephew, also.
Giorgi, in the film. So, I used to talk to her a lot
and I think that questioning everything is very important.
Like, what does it mean to be a mother?
Even if you don't live in the marginalised community,
even if you're not oppressed?
I think motherhood is the most complex notion
and most complex role for a woman to play.
And I don't think that it's all beautiful and just tenderness and love.
I think it's a complex thing, as it is
and I really wanted to go beyond
just talking about a woman in the oppressed community,
but I wanted to make a film about a woman.
And the rest is just circumstances.
When we were talking about how the camera films the intangible,
I was thinking of the great moment in the movie,
it's a very bravura sequence of seven minutes or more,
in which Yana is lying on leaves in woods
and we are allowed to linger on her face,
and her behaviour and her alertness
to the sounds in the world that is around her
to the degree that we start
to be completely hypnotised by this image.
And at the same time, the sun, the light,
comes and goes in a way that somehow is bringing out
all these shadows and luminosity of Yana herself.
How do you conceive a scene like that?
And can we also investigate, starting from this sequence,
your collaboration with Arseni Khachaturan,
the great director of photography,
that, I guess, made his debut with this movie.
Or maybe, in any case, this is one of the very first films he made,
and that somehow, is another great addition to film-making today.
Well, with Arseni, we worked together for a long time
and I just want to say that I am so happy to have these people, like, in my life,
like Arseni and my producers.
We have been making short films together and we really know each other.
And I think it's a great luxury to have when you're making a film.
And this sequence in particular was, like, we were in the forest
and I had a storyboard and I had a shot list,
which I actually usually have -
we work on it a lot, with Arseni -
and we, I was, like, I knew what I wanted to shoot.
And... But I was, like...
Like, dramaturgically, everything was working.
But I was not feeling that I was getting what I was looking for.
And it was not that easy for me also to explain,
but then I was just walking around in this place
and then we knew, like, I was, like, "Okay, I think we need to try this,"
because I was looking at the light and how it was moving through the leaves,
and we just asked the actress to lay down in that particular place
and then we asked our friend who was the gaffer, literally,
to catch the light also,
but we needed to actually wait for the light.
And I think that, in the moment, maybe it looked a bit absurd,
because Arseni, who usually we don't need to talk much,
usually just understands what I want to do
and we were pretty much really understanding each other without talking,
at some point, he was looking through the camera,
and he looked at me, he was, like, "What are we doing now?"
Because it was already six minutes went by.
And I was like, "Okay."
And I just knew that, exactly, like, what is cinema?
It's an actor, or it's a human, in front of the camera.
It's the image, it's a sound, it's light.
And it's how the light changes.
And I was just so in the moment,
I was so hypnotised by looking at her face with the light changing
that I knew immediately that I, as a director,
really did not need to do anything any more.
Like, it was happening and I didn't know...
In that moment, I could not say what I was grasping, actually.
But I was really convinced
and I trusted the moment.
Which means that you were following your intuition.
Well, yes. And that's exactly...
Like, I think that no matter how great the script is,
and how well I am prepared -
and I really like to be well prepared -
but then on-set, if I don't connect in the moment,
what's happening in front of the camera,
I don't believe that I can save anything in editing.
I'm not... I know that many directors can. I can't.
I need to feel that it's really happening in that moment
and I'm connecting emotionally, with what's happening,
what's happening in front of the camera.
And actually Arseni agrees with me and my collaboration is to add...
Arseni is really a great talent.
And what I really like, working with him
is that, first of all, he's very...
I think that he has something,
like, he has connection with people always.
Like, he doesn't speak Georgian, but when he's in Georgia,
and I always take him to mountains and to places which are not very easy
for foreigners to go and feel very comfortable in,
but, I mean, no, he doesn't need to talk
and it brings people around him some comfort.
Like, they feel comfortable. Because I know that he sees things.
And I think that many people don't see things any more.
We look at things but we don't really see.
And Arseni has... We don't need to talk.
Sometimes we just go and walk around some place and I know that,
even if I don't say it in the moment, like, "Okay, look at this light,"
I know that he saw it.
Maybe, in three days, we'll talk about it.
I'll say that, "Oh, did you notice? And he'll, like, "Yeah."
And we both make notes, usually, about light, or...
The movie is shot in this beautiful Academy frame
and it's mostly...
You use the camera as a still...gaze,
but a few times - maybe two or three, I don't remember now, precisely -
you move the camera.
Can we talk about that?
Yes. Actually, that was one thing we disagreed, with Arseni.
Because, like, I was, like...
For me, as a director, I'm very interested in the medium itself,
like, what is cinema as a medium?
And how does all the images and all the audio-visual material
we're surrounded with in our everyday life,
how does it affect the way we're looking?
How does it affect the way we listen to things?
And I was thinking that, as a director,
what if you distil everything to the essential?
What if you distil everything to the minimum?
And I knew that I just wanted to look at things in front of me,
and I wanted to create mise-en-scène that would be mostly about looking.
And then even I was removing a lot of sound.
We created a lot of sound, and then I was removing it from the film.
And once the film is so still then every minimal movement you make,
it has a much bigger impact on the viewer,
than if you were to move the camera all the time.
In this film, that's for sure.
And I really wanted to know also,
how much would I, as a director, feel the audience in that moment,
like, if I knew that, "This is the moment I would move,"
and that's how it was shot, we only moved the camera in this way...
- It's actually four. - Four times, okay.
In the four moments in the film.
We didn't shoot any other moment.
But I'm sure there will be a time
in which you will do a movie,all the movement of the camera.
Yes. Actually, I'm already thinking about it.
Now, because we're talking about the language of cinema,
I must ask you, before going back to the character
and the theme of the film,
what are, if there are any, people whose work you have been following,
or ideal mentors in cinema for you,
people that...film-makers that you've been inspired by,
that you refer to in your mind when you are creating an image?
Who are your fathers and mothers in cinema?
Well, you see, until I was 17, I had not watched films,
because I was growing up, we had... There was a civil war in Georgia,
so we did not have electricity and I was mostly reading,
but I was reading a lot.
And I grew up in this town where the film is shot,
so I was growing up in a very beautiful and picturesque place.
And, uh...
I think I had a very happy and interesting childhood,
despite all the hardships of the reality we lived in,
because I had the opportunity to spend time with people
and to really play in the streets and to go to the forest every day
and to even get... I was getting lost in the forest,
for example, and then coming back.
So, it was all filled with emotional experiences,
which just, somehow, they're really, like,
imprinted in my memories now.
And I think that's my biggest influence maybe,
but then, cinema, I started to watch cinema when I was 17
and it was like an explosion.
I, all of a sudden, started to understand that there was something...
And I did not know if I could ever become a director,
I did not even think about it.
But I started to watch everything.
And I am... I do believe that I'm equally influenced by everything I watch,
but today I was thinking, for example,
about Ermanno Olmi,The Tree of Wooden Clogs.
I don't know why, all day long, I keep thinking about this film
and I know that I need to immediately re-watch it,
because some of the images just come into my head and it just...
I think that's an influence.
When a film comes back to you after some time,
and it takes you back to watch it
or you're doing something mundane in your life
and then a film comes to you somehow,
I think that is an influence,
because I did study in the film school,
but I cannot say that to study a shot-by-shot breakdown,
yes, it's incredible, of course,
and practically it makes a huge difference,
and I'm very grateful to have certain skills as a director,
but after all,
it's just an emotional connection with cinema.
Yana is antagonised...
I mean, I don't want to use this word,
but I would say that there is the unity of Yana
and then there is the sort of trinity of three men.
David, then the detective and the son.
Two men exert violence on Yana and one is somehow... Not somehow,
one is actually the victim of her violence.
Do we want to make a little diagram?
Can we investigate this?
Well, yes, because I was also questioning that she...
The child is her victim directly,
but maybe she's the one who takes responsibility for the crime,
but others just don't.
And I think that perhaps the punishment for the father, the husband character,
is that he will never be able to have actual punishment.
And I don't think that redemption, then, is possible for him.
So, I was thinking about that,
maybe, what she does at least makes her guilty.
But, him, he's somewhere without actual relief.
He's the character who possesses the most power in the story of the film,
we think so, but, in reality,
he doesn't have power even over being guilty or accepting his own guilt.
And also, this film, for me, is about love, at the same time.
Because I don't know how much love is just...
I mean, what is it?
I was thinking that maybe this family, they all love each other.
But is it possible, truly,
like, to truly love someone without imposing something?
Or is it possible to love someone for who they really are?
Because when he tells his wife that, "I want to forgive you,"
for me, that's a very interesting phrase. Because, what does it mean to forgive?
Like, what's your position in that situation?
When you take that power or responsibility to forgive someone.
Like, what does he want to forgive her?
Like, he wants to forgive her what she's taken away.
So, for me, the diagram is that I don't know in this film, for me,
it's not like one character is just...
guilty or evil, and another one is right, or...
This film is not about wrong and right, for me.
I think all of them are equally wrong and right, because they're humans.
It was interesting for me to watch the movie in the theatre
and feeling the almost unbearable tension
of the scenes between Yana and the detective.
All of them.
Because those scenes were ambiguous.
Yes.
You were not putting...
You didn't put us in the position either of him or her.
We were not, in a way,
in scenes in which we were victimised
or we were sadistic.
And the relationship with the detective and Yana,
as we know from the movie,
has outcomes that are super complex.
Mm-hm.
Because probably not knowing completely Yana,
we do not expect or predict to know
how Yana would react to the relationship with the detective.
How did you process that?
Because that is a very complicated thing to conceive and to achieve.
And, for me, it is a luminous example of your mastery.
Thank you.
Well, I think that they...
The scene when he visits her house,
and she sits and they talk, I think, when he's off camera,
this is when he has the most power over her,
because it's not him just as one character any more.
He becomes something maybe bigger than one character.
And then she's also facing the audience in a certain way.
And it's also, like, he becomes so intangible,
we cannot...
Because, if we look at him and we know exactly what he feels,
and if he takes pleasure out of what he's doing,
then we can maybe detach from this character,
detach ourselves from him a bit.
But when we don't see him, I think it's more difficult for us
because then we're forced to also take our own position
and to be responsible for what we feel.
And I think that those kinds of moments make the audience more active
because we are not given answers
and we need to participate in a different way.
We need to make decisions on our own.
I knew for sure that I didn't want to cut back and forth,
because, dramaturgically, of course, it's interesting and there is...
It's seducing, to go to him,
because it's interesting to also film, um...antagonists,
especially when they're charismatic and evil or, like, there is...
You want to film them too, but I was, like,
no, it's a totally different film. That's not what I'm interested in.
Again, I was interested to ask the audience...
to place themselves in a scene.
Like, where is your place as an audience?
And it's charged because it's also imbued, like, is it sexually charged,
or what does she feel in that moment? Is she scared?
And when there's one emotion and one feeling becomes another.
There is a lot happening
and I didn't want to just separate and make it about one thing.
Another scene is the rape scene, of course,
and, again, I wanted to step back and I did not want to crack the scene
and I didn't want to emphasise anything.
I only wanted to film the scene for what it is, what's really happening,
and to almost film it in real time, in front of camera.
And we did only two takes, and it's the first take.
And we knew that it would be on the first take,
but we did a second one,
because of Arseni, because he always wants to have safety.
But I was convinced that we did not need a second take any more.
And I didn't want to give the audience any answer there as well,
because once I knew that I would position...
I would put the camera and I would know where the audience members are,
where do they look from,
then it's up to the audience to also decide what each of us feel.
Because it's a sexual assault,
which happens in front of the camera and in front of us.
I cannot tell anyone what to feel in that moment.
It's up to every single individual in...
in the theatre.
The movie, it takes place in a community of Jehovah's Witnesses
and the religious aspect of the movie
not only is, let's say, literal in the storyline,
but it's also very beautifully infused in the image,
the image, as you said many times during our conversations,
it's about the invisible.
And definitely that's one of the powers of cinema
and this is very well played in Beginning.
You, you... I know the answer.
I know this is not an allegory, I know this is not a metaphor
and I know you love the idea of accumulation,
the accumulation being the layers, being what makes cinema.
But the movie ends with an image that is very biblical.
When I'm asked to explain my movies, in particular, my endings,
I am very contemptuous of who asks me these questions.
But I cannot resist to ask this question, Déa.
Am I right? There is a very powerful religious...
Allegory?
Allegory or imagery or...
It's not allegory, maybe, but I know why you're asking the question,
because I think that it is definitely thinking...
which has religious thought or examination of religious ideas behind it.
Because I was thinking again, like...
is it a punishment?
Is it a redemption for this character?
Can he have either one?
Because for him to disintegrate, is it possibility of death,
or is it impossibility for him to even die?
Because I was still thinking that, is it one or another?
And I honestly don't know.
Because, even when I was working on this,
I do know that I was thinking about this, I was thinking that he disintegrate,
he does not die with just the death of a human, when you just die.
He's still breathing, by the way, when he's turns into sand.
He's half sand and he's still breathing, and I was working on that,
I really wanted the audience to feel that he's breathing.
Because I still question that...
does he die or it's impossible for him to die?
Because I'm very curious in this idea.
I think that the idea of life and death
and especially death is the only certainty,
of all the questions we have,
the only certain thing we know that will happen for sure.
Then to question, like, what it's meaning for a human being.
Maybe I'm a bit obsessed more than anything else.
But there is religious thinking behind it, certainly.
Déa, thank you so much. This has been a wonderful conversation.
I want to remind our listeners
that the jury of the San Sebastián Film Festival
eventually awarded four awards out of seven to Déa.
The Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay.
That is the level of enthusiasm
that the jury had for your movie, Déa, and more.
And I am sure that this enthusiasm
will be more and more affecting the viewers that have seen the movie
and that will see this masterpiece.
Thank you so very much.
Luca, thank you very much. Thank you.