KINO CAISA: April (12)
11.3.2025 | 18:00
Kaikukatu 4, 00530 Helsinki
After a newborn dies during delivery, the morals and professionalism of an OB-GYN, Nina, come under scrutiny amid rumors that she performs illegal abortions for those in need.
Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili) is a skilled obstetrician at a maternity hospital in Eastern Georgia. After a difficult delivery, the infant dies and the grief-racked father demands an inquiry into her methods. The resulting scrutiny threatens to bring to light Nina’s sideline—driving, through the stunningly beautiful countryside to the village homes of pregnant girls and women to provide unsanctioned abortions—and to destroy the profession that is the only source of meaning in her life.
For April, her second feature following 2020’s acclaimed Beginning, Dea Kulumbegashvili spent months observing the work of doctors at a maternity clinic and the lives of the surrounding rural communities. The story she crafted is grounded in realistic detail and was brought to life by an intensive rehearsal and production process, with a cast that includes accomplished
Georgian theater and film actors (Sukhitashvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Merab Ninidze) alongside nonprofessionals. This is a profoundly committed work that immerses the viewer in the reality of lives constrained by patriarchal tradition—that of Nina, whose emotional life outside of the empathy she has for her patients has become stunted, among them.
Anchored by Sukhitashvili’s disciplined performance, the film also gains rich texture from its sometimes luminous, sometimes spectral images by cinematographer Arseni Khachaturan and its mesmerizing soundtrack, which integrates minimalist music by experimental composer Matthew Herbert with heightened sounds from the physical world of the film.
Age Limit: 12
Duration: 134 min
Spoken language: Georgian
Subtitles: English
