Though there are some quite interesting works to be found at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the best film to show there is Dea Kulumbegashvili’s astounding “April.” The second feature from the Georgian director who made the similarly captivating “Beginning” in 2020, the film is one of the most exciting and enrapturing works of cinema in recent memory. It then makes perfect sense that the festival would want Kulumbegashvili to lead an exclusive masterclass for aspiring young filmmakers looking to make their mark.
Following Nina (Ia Sukhitashvili) who works as an OB-GYN and performs abortions in her own time to those who desperately need them, “April” defies categorization. It approaches the material with an emphasis on more sensory and less conventional storytelling even as it grapples with real issues. After winning the Special Jury Prize at last year’s Venice International Film Festival, the film received a limited U.S. release from Metrograph.
In an interview with TheWrap, Kulumbegashvili discussed her festival masterclass, the importance of process in filmmaking, and new details about her upcoming film being produced under Emma Stone and Dave McCary’s production banner Fruit Tree.
How was your masterclass with young filmmakers?
Kulumbegashvili: It was interesting. When I was offered to do it, I was a bit hesitant, because I never knew what I could teach. And also, I shy away from being a teacher in general, because I don’t know how much I have to say in that regard. But then I understood that it’s not about teaching, maybe, but exchanging some ideas and I also need this dialogue. I want to hear from younger and aspiring directors, what’s their vision of cinema? So it was a really great experience for me.
What did they say their vision of cinema was and what did you say your vision was?
At first, it was interesting how much impatience they have. (Laughs) There is something really lovely about it, because they really don’t want to wait. I wish I knew when I was making my first feature that’s the most precious time, when you’re waiting, so cold, waiting for financing, because you can really, really work on your film. It was really interesting to remind myself to always go back to this position where there is no time wasted when you’re working on a film. You should not look at it like “Oh, I’m not waiting for that financing, I need to make this film tomorrow.” It’s a process and you really need to be enjoying that part of it.
How much time was between when you finished production on your first feature and when you began on the second?
It was too quick. I finished “Beginning” right before the Toronto International Film Festival in 2020. In Toronto, we showed it with a different sound mix because it was not fully ready. It was 2020 and then in 2022 I was already shooting “April.”
So that’s very quick.
It was very quick and there was a lot of pressure. It’s very important for me now to think about why there was so much pressure on me to do a film quickly.
Why do you think there was?
Because we’re working in an industry where there is so much expectation. It’s not expectation towards cinema, but it’s an expectation towards success, and I don’t think it’s always the right thing. I think we should be more patient and I would prefer to make films slower. I’m not rushing anywhere now, honestly.
To let the art breathe.
Yes.
With you mentioning the sound mix, I wanted to ask about the sound of “April.” What was your journey to finding the soundscapes and immersing us within them?
I was doing all the location scouting and everything myself and I always do it myself. Because of that, I start to do notes for sound before I start to shoot. So by the time we are on set, there is an entire plan of how we record sound. I am, of course, learning my process and my method. With my next film, I hope that I’ll be even more aware of how to do things. Because even though I knew a lot, I still failed to record some of the things I still think needed to be recorded a bit differently. Like recording the sound of the wind through tall grass is really different from just wind. Those are the things which are really important for me, because I really needed to create this very tactile and very sensual experience with sound.
We have hours, endless hours of recordings. But then we still do a lot of ADR, because when we edit, we edit a lot without sound, especially this time. It was a bit funny, because when I was back in the studio, my child was three weeks old and he was with me all the time, so we could not have sound on. (Laughs) Most of the time it was off, because he just slept on me. We were like, “Whatever, this is how we’re doing it.” And then I had a nanny who would come to help me, so part of the day we would hear the sound of a scene and the other part was still quiet. But that also helped me to rethink the entire sound of the film and to really approach it as creating a new, from scratch somehow, soundtrack or the soundscape.
It sounds like it was a process of discovery that you would not have had otherwise without these things.
Yes! That’s why I’m saying it’s a process that you need to embrace. I don’t look at things as advantages or disadvantages or problems. It’s like, enjoy it! I really love making films in any conditions. (Laughs)
It sounds like you have a deep interest in fine-tuning all the different pieces of film, not just as image or acting or performance or sound, but the culmination of all of them.
Yes, especially acting, by the way. I did a lot of dancing all my childhood. So for me, acting is physical. It’s not only your face. It’s you fully, your presence. Up until now, at least, I’ve always had this opportunity to do ADR of breathing and then edit the breathing the way I want the character to be felt. And it’s all edited, always in my films, everything.
The breathing, in particular in “April,” conjures this natural, deep within feeling. It’s very haunting. Who’s doing the breathing?
[Ia Sukhitashvili] is doing it, but we edited it. It’s a bit slower than she actually breathes. We did a bit of a separation in between each breath. That really draws you in and you start to get on her rhythm, because it’s a bit off. It creates more of a sense of physical presence than when she was just breathing normally. Ia is a brilliant actress, she really goes for it with me. She really wants to try all these things and she comes back for ADR for weeks actually (Laughs). She really wants to be part of it.
There’s so many shots that made me feel that they were almost a whole story, as if each frame was a painting. Even when they’re sitting at the table in opening scenes or when she’s sitting at home alone. Do you have a visual in mind ahead of time?
For me, “Where is the camera?” is where the film starts. The positioning of the camera is the most important question for me always, and the lens, and, really, how am I looking? Sometimes we build sets, they’re entirely constructed by us. For example, that part of the hospital, we created it. It was an abandoned part of the real hospital which we reconstructed so it looks exactly like the real one. But it’s not the real one because I wanted this space to be exactly done this way with the space for the camera, because I wanted the camera to be exactly there, because I know how I wanted to see them. It’s a bit obsessive. I don’t want to sound like a maniac, (Laughs) but maybe sometimes I do.
Arseni Khachaturan, our cinematographer, is really my closest collaborator. We have an entire floor plan of all these shots. I always know that this is how much space we need from the camera to the first character, second character, how I’m going to do the mise-en-scène. Actors now know how to work with me, but I know that sometimes they were annoyed. Now they have much more freedom because they already know me, because it’s not the first time. I really need a lot of commitment for the actor to know that you need to really sit here, like you can’t move because the camera is so close to you. It’s super close to Ia specifically. It is very choreographed, of course, like when they’re going to look away. But then, we rehearse so much that they lose this sense of rehearsal and it becomes very natural.
Are you intending to work with them again for your next film?
I’m going to make a film in the U.S. So for this one, no. I’m going to work with other people, but I’m going to work with really great actors also. And I can’t wait, actually. I need to do a bit more now, but I’m taking my time because it’s something that’s totally new territory, which is very exciting for me. I’m really trying to understand how to distill it to the essence of what I really want to do.
Have you picked a location or have you picked actors?
A lot of it, yes. It’s already, very decided in my head. What takes a lot of time for me is to really distill things to the essence and remove everything which is not necessary.
Speaking of distilling things to their essence, when you arrive at the end of “April,” it’s such a full circle moment where nothing has changed and everything has changed. Politically, emotionally and socially, what does that conclusion represent for you when you arrive at that moment and when you watch it back yourself?
I recently watched it again and I think that the world in which we live now is very strange. I have this feeling that something I can’t explain is happening, but usually I trust my intuition and my sensitivity. I know that something is going to change and it’s very palpable in the air. I don’t know anymore if we’re heading towards something better or something worse or something totally new. But there is this turbulence, which I just feel everywhere.
I started to have this experience a few years ago, maybe since the war started in Ukraine, because in Georgia, it’s very, very close. I think even before that, what it means for me to be Georgian and to have this relationship with life, which is almost existentialist, it’s embodied in our culture that we don’t really think that much changes. I don’t believe in big changes in terms of, like a film you start with something, it’s a status quo, and then it changes fully. But I believe that small things matter more and the most difficult thing, in cinema and in art, is to talk about the small things or the changes which are not easily perceived.
But I remember that there was a lot of anger when I was making this film and a lot of unexpressed frustration. I always say I believe in ideas of humanism, now actually much more than when I was making “April.” Now I’m more convinced and I really want to make a film which stands on those ideas. But I don’t think there are huge changes. Maybe there is something very little that changes in us every day and that’s actually what matters.
