April

There are many straightforward birth shots; but the women in those shots are surrounded by doctors and illuminated by surgical lights. They lie on the operating table legally, but their bodies are still controlled. In the abortion scene before the rainstorm, the deaf-mute woman cannot yell. The nurse holds her hand. You can only see her body twisting and hear the sound of the cold instrument. About illegal abortion, about rape, about women's bodily autonomy, about medical conditions, about deaf-mute people... The director only shows the tip of the iceberg, but you can feel the iceberg buried underneath. In the end, the deaf-mute woman was killed, and the illegal abortion was exposed. The doctor accepted the questioning of his superiors. A bird hit the glass and died. I thought it would be fine if I was careful, but this is not true freedom.

Under the unconcealed gaze, physicality is elevated to the highest position. It is about pain, repression, and the loss of women's bodily autonomy. The most impressive transition is the abortion of a deaf-mute woman. For nearly five minutes, the silent pain was deafening. Then the camera turned, and there was a strong wind and thunder outside the house, as if the sky had shouted for her, and it seemed to be telling a looming fate. Although the topic is clear, the film focuses on the atmosphere, which reproduces the bleakness, closedness, backwardness, and patriarchal clouds of the Georgian countryside through almost simultaneous shots inside and outside the screen. April reminds people of September, and the grassland that witnessed the death of the gods.

But such a process happens repeatedly in the real world. The film focuses on the discussion of reproductive autonomy. The patriarchy controls women's reproductive rights (using violence as a means), so that women's reproduction is excluded from "labor" and becomes an object monopolized by husbands and fathers in the family, thus being forced to become dependent and docile housewives, wives and daughters. If it weren't in the cinema, I might have found it difficult to finish watching this film, but the screening room is like a place that you can't avoid, forcing you to stare at the image for a long time until you understand its meaning. The birth process is bloody and long, but it is not violent, but the control of fertility is, and the witch hunt is.

The first movie I watched at the festival was the Georgian film April. In the dark space, a human-like monster was groping and walking alone, and then it was a shocking real childbirth scene. It can be said that this film from female director Diya Kulumbegashvili is an author's film that calls for the issue of women's living environment in an extreme form.

A well-known female obstetrician and gynecologist walks the line between tradition and taboo behind her white coat. She uses the dual states of welcoming life and strangling life to express the confinement and oppression of women in the local social environment. The troubled female doctor examines her body, desires, and inner pain in the situation of being imprisoned. After careful consideration, she resolutely defends women's physical rights and freedom of destiny in a way that violates so-called morality.

The film uses a lot of long shots to depict the status of characters in different situations, switching between reality and fantasy, and analyzing the concrete display of the characters' physical and mental perceptions and self-thinking in the spiritual world. In the atmosphere of anxiety and despair, it ponders the relationship between the continuation of life and the right to decide on physical emotions. Behind helping people deliver babies is helping people with abortions. Under the actual situation, her compassionate gaze and crying are like a suppressed inner roar. The real operation of childbirth and abortion under the long shot, with extremely bright red blood rendering against a pale background, is displayed with straightforward and not straightforward shots, and is set off by the sound of instrument collision and the low hum of pain. It is really cold to the bone.

The wilderness image under the long lens reflects the desolate and bleak feeling of the heroine. The clouds passing by the cold rain express the turbulence after extreme depression. The rare bright flowers are also a vivid portrayal of the character's state. Although the reckless long lens really makes people sleepy, the aftereffect of the movie will still bring a deeper shock. The bold and straightforward sensory display seems to be to peel off your own flesh and give you a bloody display of the injustice, pain and helplessness that women encounter from themselves and the surrounding situations.

Although I don't particularly like "April", it still has a very unique expression in terms of form and content. It's just that I am getting more and more tired of the so-called long-shot expression, which sometimes is a lingering aftertaste of emotion, and sometimes is an unrestrained waste of emotion.

The venomous version: If the director had split this film into a landscape documentary and a surgical documentary, it might have been more popular; if the director had not made an art film, but a curious porn, it might have achieved higher artistic achievements. The non-venomous version: A lot of inexplicable, smelly and long scenery clips may have been the least of the problems. The completely suffocating and unreasonable silence between the characters only reduced the popularity of the film for some people. Orientalism should be resisted, but it may be a favorite of old white men. However, I think no one can tolerate the most vulnerable moments of women and the privacy of women in extremely curious and disgusting forms, which are usually presented in the form of more than ten minutes in the film. Although the director seems to be trying to expose the social dilemma of women, this almost bullying display also eliminates the subjectivity of women. This is just a microcosm of the problem of the film's portrayal of women as a sexist film. The women in the film still cannot escape the category of "lamb" and "witch", even the heroine. In addition, it can be seen that the director tried to borrow the styles of many master directors. However, the weak script, the expressionless performances of all the actors and the very distorted shooting thinking will only make people laugh.

In this light, diva futura (sorry I have to praise it again) is a stark contrast to this film, teaching a lesson on how to truly portray a woman, show her relationship with life, and impose aesthetic value while showing sex.

And please don't shake the camera, it makes me dizzy.