- Hello and welcome
to a special Q and A recording of "Beginning",
one of the 50 official selection titles
at the 45th Toronto International Film Festival.
Thank you to our audience for joining us.
As an organization still impacted by COVID-19,
we need your support so that
we can continue to present films to future generations
and to preserve these important voices.
My name is Dorota Lech,
and I'm TIFF's Curator
of Central and Eastern European Cinema,
as well as the Lead Programmer of Discovery,
a showcase of new talent from around the world.
Discovery presents
the first and second features of "Daring Directors",
and is a place to unearth art that is bold,
distinctive, adventurous, and above all passionate.
I'm thrilled to be here with Dea Kulumbegashvili,
Writer and Director of "Beginning".
This film is eligible for the People's Choice Award,
and you can vote for as many films as you like
at tiff.net/vote
Dea,
first of all, welcome,
and thank you so much for joining us
and congratulations on your first feature,
which is really quite impressive.
- Thank you very much.
Hello, Dorota.
And I just want to thank everyone who came to watch the film
and the selectors who picked up the film for the festival.
And especially in the time of the pandemic,
I think that it's important to
show the films to the audiences around the world.
So then,
I think that's all the matters
that some people will be still able to watch the film,
despite the fact that
we filmmakers are unable to actually attend the screenings.
But,
I'm actually happy knowing that
people have watched the film.
And thank you for that.
- And it's such a shame
because it's really your first screening.
It's the world premier of your first feature.
So we're so sad to not be able to celebrate with you,
but we will be toasting to you in the cinema afterwards.
- Thank you.
- So,
could we start, I wanted to start by asking you,
could you tell us where the story came from,
as you also wrote the script?
- Well, this story
a few years ago,
I was in Georgia in the village where I am from, and then
I, my family's also from that village, and
my father was telling me that
there is this community of Jehovah's Witnesses
that's growing
and,
and part of the community is also
the people in the community are related to my family.
And,
I just saw them like accidental,
they just came to see me
and I started to feel how much
they feel like they're outsiders,
despite the fact that they actually live in the place
where they're born and raised and they have been,
like living there all their lives.
And that was maybe the initial
idea to actually go and look at the community closer
and see how they leave and
what are the hardships that they are going through
every day.
And, at the same time,
I was actually thinking for quite a while about
the story of the woman who maybe in
any other film would be a secondary character.
And to me, it was very important to look at the
so called, like traditional narrative of cinema
or the storytelling,
and to look at the characters who are not
on the foreground necessarily all the time.
And,
I think like many things were just
happening at the same time, and
it just came together that
this woman was the main character,
Yana, was the main character of the film.
But it then it took me a few years actually to,
to really write a script because
I had these thoughts,
but it was not really clear to me how I would want to
approach writing and what film would be really about.
But,
I think the most important aspect is that
the more I was thinking about this woman
who I considered to be the main character of the film,
the more I understood how to structure the story itself,
and then how to actually tell her story.
And,
I am still convinced after even the film is made and
we can watch it that in any other film,
this woman would be,
not a main character in the film.
It was really important for me
in the process of writing as well.
- That's so interesting and
I do have to say that Ia,
if I pronounce her name correctly,
Ia Sukhitashvili is quite brilliant as Yana.
And in fact, your whole cast,
Rati Oneli who I suppose there's also your producer
as David, her husband,
Kakha Kintsurashvili as Alex, the police officer,
how did you assemble this cast?
What was your selection like?
- Well, the casting was pretty
actually, I would consider that
in a way to the certain degree to me,
it's like when I'm writing,
I do imagine people who might be acting in the film.
And Georgia, we do have many amazing actors,
but the casting process is not very easy because,
actors come mostly from the
theater and from the dramatic theater background,
which actually comes from mostly theater background
actually a brilliant actress.
She can do anything.
And the casting was a very long process,
but somehow
all of these people joined the film pretty late on
because I was considering many actors
and I was doing workshops and I was working
because usually I would,
I like to workshop the script with actors
in the casting, not just the person coming into the room
and reading the scene for me.
I really need to spend some time with actors
and I need to see what is in them that
maybe was not written in the character,
but there is something in this person
that they actually can bring to the character.
For example, Kakha the police officer.
Initially I wrote the character which was pretty different.
But then I saw that Kakha's energy which is
really opposite to what was written
ended up being more important to me
and more interesting than to have the more
straightforward casting in terms of
to have more rigid and more
like maybe brutal
like energy coming from it
because Kakha is very sensitive and he's all,
he has almost like a child face.
He's almost an opposite of the character.
But with Ia,
first of all, I think,
I mean, she's an incredible actress.
And the day that she came to the casting,
we were just absolutely convinced because
even the way she was dressed at the casting,
that's basically how her entire wardrobe
was assembled in the film.
Like, her hair.
She looked exactly the same, you know,
this is how she came to the casting.
And then she's an actress of incredible range.
And,
she
she's actually, I would love to work with her
in the future because she's,
she's really dedicated to what she does, and she really
wants to go like,
the depth,
into the depths of the script and
she really understands that
it's not the script that you're shooting,
but you're actually shooting the film.
And there is something which goes beyond what's written and,
and Rati, he was there from the beginning, but
actually he was the one who joined the cast the last,
the latest.
Yes, because for a long time I was trying to convince him
(mumbles) because he's not a professional actor, he's
actually, he's a film director.
But,
and he did not want to act
because he thought that it was too much of a responsibility
for him.
But then at the end, he when he started to try and we were,
we did a lot of rehearsals.
We were doing rehearsals for months and months
and every day, we would just come to the room and
workshop this script.
And I just convinced Rati to try
to start to do it with us
and if it would work for him
and if he would feel comfortable
and I think he did a brilliant job
and,
I'm very grateful to my cast,
because I think they all
were really there for me and for the film.
And they,
I think
they did,
they,
they invested themselves so much into the film
that it's, it goes beyond just,
only a work in a way they really wanted
to do their best, I guess.
So.
- What was most difficult scene to shoot?
Because there are many incredible scenes
and a few quite jarring scenes.
And I'm wondering what took the most
effort.
- It's.
I mean, technically
obviously the most difficult scene was the first one.
It was very technically,
but I would say that it was not the most difficult to shoot.
We had only one take, so,
and we do, we did prepare for two days, I think for the,
for the shot and much like, even longer in advance,
like technical and with
special effects,
artist and with
extras.
But,
I don't know, what's
maybe this is specific to me.
I don't know how other directors work, but
for me, the easiest things
are usually the most difficult to shoot.
Because like some of the things have shot
two and three times and it's...
I'm not embarrassed to say it
because I think that
it's a learning experience
and making your first feature and...
But I guess it's just like that for,
even for your tenth feature, it's,
you're learning and
sometimes it's such a simple scene
and you can understand
simply it's sometimes very really well written,
well rehearsed,
and then I do have a storyboard and I do have a shot list,
but then on set,
if I do not feel the connection
with what's really happening in front of the camera,
I just cannot accept that this is going to be in the film
because I don't think
anything really can help it later on.
So it needs to in a way happen on set.
And,
it's, especially with timing
and how the shots are structured to me it's really important
to connect to the time that's
that exists within the shot and in the film.
So I am always next to the camera or
like I sit on the floor next to the camera.
I really feel the connection.
For example, the police scene.
It's the simplest thing she comes just to knock, Ia.
I mean, that was shot
three times. (laughter)
And it,
yeah, that really embarrassing
because I needed to go to the stairs and to the crew
and say that, "I'm sorry" (laughs)
- No, your perfectionism really comes through.
And I think another really beautiful thing
I just noticed about you is you
speak so generously about the people you work with,
which makes me then just want to ask you more questions
about your collaborators, if you don't mind.
Because I think it's important to say
the film was shot on 35 by you're a long time collaborator
Arseni Khachaturan, if I pronounced that correctly.
It's edited by Matthieu Taponier,
who's known for editing László Nemes's "Son of Saul"
and original music by the
experimental electronic composer, Nicolas Jaar.
So you really
assembled incredible teams
and I wonder if you can talk more about those decisions too.
- Well, with Arseni it's
you know, we met when
he's 27.
I would say Arseni he's a very young,
really amazing cinematographer
and I'm so happy to see him really doing
so well from like, one film to another.
And we shot my short film "Lethe" together.
He was I think 23 at that point.
And,
initially why I wanted to work with him
because I saw the still photos that he was taking.
And I just see how much
he would connect with what was happening in front of camera.
And that his connection that he has with people.
And he can really grasp something that
independent of who is taking the photo it's,
it's like exists in its own time and its own space,
and you can see people in his photos.
And we started to work together and then,
he also shot write his documentary "City of the Sun".
- Mm Hmm.
- And we have spent so much time together
and we were preparing for this film for five years,
four years together, actually.
And Arseni I mean, we went through,
we don't really talk that much anymore.
And I think it's an amazing thing.
It's a great comfort,
to not need to
really talk, I mean when,
I'm always next to him on set, so
he kinda like, understands (laughs)
if I like something or what,
but, we work really closely on the
storyboard and the location scouting and
actually, I think I have been blessed with an amazing team
with because,
also the producers,
we worked on "Lethe", also together on the short film.
So we're all, we really know each other.
And we do each other's process
because I think making your first feature,
the most difficult and most challenging thing
is to gain trust,
for people to believe in what you're doing.
And it's not,
always easy.
And I do believe that if you come set on set
and you will try to establish your authority,
that's not,
that's not the way I would want to work.
- Right. - I would want to
allow people to,
you know, to take their time,
to connect with the film and to connect to the material and
I need to connect with them and they need to connect with me
because it's such an intimate process for the director.
But at the same time,
you need to allow these people into your world.
And I was really blessed in a way because
we're,
I mean, we're friends,
Ilan and David are here,
producers of the film, and
I don't know, it's...
I don't know anymore,
like, it feels
strange like how the life is out to the film
or like what happens (laughs) beyond.
And with Nico, Nicolas Jaar,
Nico is also a friend and I really have
a lot of respect for what he does,
but most importantly, for
how much he,
how much length he goes
to actually get to know you,
get to know what you're,
to get to know what you're doing.
He was in Georgia, I think
one year before I even started to shoot.
He came to Georgia to see the places,
to see the locations,
to spend some time with me, and
like,
we would traveled around and,
and then he was also in Mexico
where I was editing with Matthieu.
Matthieu was on set also for the entire shoot.
And,
he was there for the
storyboarding and for the
like shot list.
We all worked very closely.
And how do I choose the team?
I don't know, to me the personal connection,
like if I can connect with people,
that's I think what matters,
because
technically you can figure out everything.
But with (mumbles) is if you can really
allow these people into your world,
and if you can enter in a way their world, because
after all, you spend so much time together and
I, it's
on some of the days I'm so exhausted that I cannot
spend hours explaining (laughs)
and it's....
- That's very interesting.
I have one more question.
I actually have a hundred more questions for you
and your answers are so thoughtful, but
could you please talk about the title "Beginning"
and what it means to you for this film?
- Well, title was the most difficult (laughter)
of the film because it was called,
it had a totally different title.
Which I never liked by the way,
but some people liked it in the team,
including our senior writers, by the way,
they were really attached to the old title.
But I was bothered because
I thought it was the title from a different film.
And then we were in Mexico.
We finished editing.
I think at that point it was just me and Arseni,
we were waiting for the color grading process to start.
And we were just talking about,
I was
unhappy.
And then it said that,
you know, in the Bible,
there is a phrase that "In the beginning there was a word
and the word was, God."
I don't know if I'm quoting it correctly.
- You are.
- And I said that to me,
Yana, this woman has something which
constantly brings me back to this
line, and,
and strangely enough, Arseni said that,
"Oh, maybe your film is called The Beginning."
And how it connects is that
'cause we had so many different like ideas, but
it's just,
immediately understood that yes, it's true.
That's why I was always going to this line because
the film for me is about something to begin or to end.
And we never know if it's,
if something begins in the actual beginning of the film
or in the end.
I mean, I have my own
idea, but I just don't want to say more about it, but
it was,
it was like, I dunno it's
explaining it it's simple now,
but in a moment, I just understood that,
that's why I was thinking about this line
because constantly through the making of the film,
I was going back to this line and
was just repeating it over and over.
But I did not know how was it connected to the,
title of the film.
- It's a great title.
And it's a fantastic film
and I'm genuinely so excited for our audiences to see it,
and for audiences around the world to see it.
I wanna thank you so much for being with us.
It means,
so much to me to meet you.
As I've told you, I think a hundred times I really
was so impressed by your filmmaking.
The fact that this is the first feature
blew all of our minds on the programming team.
So we just wanna say congratulations from all of us
and thank you.
- Thank you for (mumbles).
- You mentioned that your team is also in the room.
Are there other people we can wave to?
Is there...
- That's Ilon and David (laughs)
They're here because we're in Paris,
there's three of us.
- Hi everyone.
- Hi - Hello
- This is Ilon and
- Thank you so much for joining us.
And,
until we meet again or for the first time,
thank you.
- Thank you very much.
Thank you, and I hope that we meet in person
sometimes. - We will.