“I don’t exist as a director in Georgia”: Dea Kulumbegashvili on her haunting abortion drama April

April, a bold and expressionistic Georgian film about a doctor who performs secret abortions in her village, has yet to screen in its native country. As the film arrives in UK cinemas, we speak to director Dea Kulumbegashvili about the culture of silence around abortion and how the film changed her for good.

25 April 2025
By Katie McCabe

Dea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature, Beginning (2020) announced a new voice in Georgian filmmaking from its opening scene with the sight of a Molotov cocktail smashing through the window of a Jehovah’s Witness hall, engulfing a terrified congregation in smoke as they try to escape the flames. Though the film appeared in the lost 2020 Covid Cannes, Kulumbegashvili’s assuredness cut through: the film was selected as Georgia’s entry for the 2021 Oscars, and director Luca Guadagnino signed on as producer for Kulumbegashvili’s latest film, April, about a doctor who performs abortions in a remote Georgian village for women who otherwise have no hope of accessing them.

Continued: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/interviews/i-dont-exist-director-georgia-dea-kulumbegashvili-her-haunting-abortion-drama-april

25.04.2025

Georgia – Déa Kulumbegashvili on abortion drama April

Georgian filmmaker Déa Kulumbegashvili talks to us about the making of her abortion drama April and the role of cinema in the face of repressive systems

Feature by Stefania Sarrubba
21 Apr 2025

Like the home abortions carried out by its protagonist Nina, the making of April was shrouded in secrecy for writer-director Déa Kulumbegashvili. Flying under the radar isn’t easy when you’re “constantly followed by police”, she tells us ahead of her film’s UK release.

After her debut Beginning made waves during the pandemic, the Georgian filmmaker returned to her hometown, Lagodekhi, for her sophomore feature, which follows an obstetrician-gynecologist moonlighting as an abortionist. Terminating an unplanned pregnancy is legal in Georgia, but restrictions and stigma, particularly in more rural areas like Lagodekhi, hinder safe access to the procedure – hence the need for Kulumbegashvili's secrecy. “They knew I was making a film about a female doctor. But we could not say what it was really about,” she explains.

Continued: https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/interviews/dea-kulumbegashvili-on-abortion-drama-april

21.04.2025

Georgian Abortion Drama April Is Equal Parts Disturbing and Enthralling

By Brianna Zigler
April 17, 2025

A mother screaming in the throes of labor gives birth to a baby that is lifeless and pale, as Georgian director Déa Kulumbegashvili films an actual live birth that produces a stillborn. This stillbirth drives the bare bones narrative of Kulumbegashvili’s sophomore feature, April: a timely examination of women’s reproductive healthcare in the face of cultural repression. Abortion isn’t illegal in Georgia outright, not before the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. But Orthodox customs and attitudes foster a deep culture of shame toward not just abortion but birth control. As our own country sees the strides it had once made in women’s healthcare rolled back, mothers forced to illegally cross state lines in order to receive life-saving care, any perceived “backwards” mores of an Eastern European society can no longer be shrugged off as such by the Western world.

Our protagonist, Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili, star of Kulumbegashvili’s prior feature, Beginning) travels to remote villages administering under-the-table abortions; an open secret among Nina’s disapproving male colleagues.

Continued : https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/dea-kulumbegashvili/april-movie-review-dea-kulumbegashvili-georgia-abortion-drama-reproductive-rights

17.04.2025

Georgia – The Year’s First Great Film Is This Harrowing Abortion Drama

“April” is a gripping, hard-to-watch film about a doctor caught in the sexist crosshairs of a no-win situation.

Nick Schager
Feb. 2 2025

A naked inhuman creature stands in the inky dark. Its skin wrinkled, its flesh-covered face devoid of eyes, a nose, or a mouth, and its breaths heavy and rhythmic. It slowly turns and walks away to the unrelated (or is it?) sound of laughing children.

April provides no context for this monstrous opening vision, nor for the ensuing images of rain pelting the ground and an unseen figure wading through waist-deep water, the lush treetops reflected in its surface. Yet over the course of its tale, these sights come to resonate as surrealistic manifestations of the anguish and alienation of its central character—and, by extension, her many countrywomen.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/april-the-years-first-great-film-is-this-harrowing-abortion-drama/

02.02.2025

Abortion care in Georgia: women face big disparity between law and reality

Abortion care in Georgia: women face big disparity between law and reality

8 March 2019
By IPPF

Georgia, a low-middle income country located at the crossroads between western Asia and eastern Europe, has come a long way since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Back then, violent civil unrest against the authoritarian government caused war on the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, and sent the government fleeing to Armenia. A three-year-long civil war created political instability and crippled the economy. Severe, countrywide corruption marred public and private institutions for decades, and issues like healthcare and social welfare were sent to the very bottom of the priority pile.

Since then, democratic reforms have been implemented and much of the country now dreams of joining the European Union. The iconic blue flags with a circle of gold stars hang everywhere – in youth centres, schools, hospitals and even people’s homes. To this day however, Georgia still faces major issues. Parts of the country are disputed and large chunks are under Russian control. Unemployment is high - currently 12.6% of the population are out of work, and this figure increases in rural regions.

Continued: https://www.ippfen.org/blogs/abortion-care-georgia-women-face-big-disparity-between-law-and-reality

08.03.2019

News

barriers to abortion access

family planning

HERA XXI

International Planned Parenthood Federation

Regional Conference on Bringing the WHO Recommendations on Safe Abortion and Family Planning Closer to Women in Countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

EASTERN EUROPE / CENTRAL ASIA – Regional Conference on Bringing the WHO Recommendations on Safe Abortion and Family Planning Closer to Women in Countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

by International Campaign for Women's Right to Safe Abortion
December 18, 2018

Chisinau, Moldova, 15-16 November 2018

Organised by the Reproductive Health Training Centre, Moldova, with support from the Safe Abortion Action Fund

There were 65 participants. The meeting was in Russian with simultaneous translation in English. Participants included health professionals, health policymakers and NGO representatives from 11 counties in the region – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Russia.

Continued: http://www.safeabortionwomensright.org/eastern-europe-central-asia-regional-conference-on-bringing-the-who-recommendations-on-safe-abortion-and-family-planning-closer-to-women-in-countries-of-eastern-europe-and-central-asia/