Apostasy

Ivanna and her two daughters, Alex and Luisa, are committed members of a Jehovah's Witness congregation. When Luisa questions the elders' counsel and takes a step against the rules, the decision to disfellowship her comes down. That decision requires her family to shun her too. The mother and the younger sister are left between two things: the congregation or Luisa. This is Daniel Kokotajlo's first film. He grew up a Jehovah's Witness and wrote it from inside that experience, which shows in the telling: the congregation is not caricatured, and the peace and belonging that faith provides are on screen too. The cruelty does not come from outside; it comes out of the conflict between love and rule. The visual language is deliberately cold: fixed frames, grey Manchester, silence. The film received six British Independent Film Award nominations, won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for best first screenplay, and was nominated for the BAFTA for outstanding debut. Who it's for: Viewers who like films that tell the conflict between faith and family from within, and quietly built British independent cinema. Who it's not for: The telling is cold and offers no comfort, and the development in the second half is heavy. Anyone wanting a balanced documentary about Jehovah's Witnesses is in the wrong place.