SHOWING JUNE 6-12 | Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Kulumbegashvili’s follow-up to her acclaimed debut feature Beginning is anchored by Ia Sukhitashvili’s powerhouse performance as Nina, an obstetrician in rural Georgia who is accused of malpractice after delivering a stillborn baby. Nina is subsequently subjected to an investigation that threatens to expose her history of flaunting taboo by discreetly providing abortions, and finds herself struggling to bear up under the burden of condemnation from a community whose women desperately need her. Shot in precisely calibrated long takes that practically vibrate with tension by DP Arseni Khachaturan, who captures both the beauty and the ominous starkness of the Caucasus, with Matthew Herbert’s asynchronous score adding to the abiding air of anxious disorientation, Kulumbegashvili’s sophomore film invents a startlingly original audiovisual vocabulary to convey its visceral narrative of repression and resistance.

SHOWING JUNE 6-19 | In 1954 New Zealand, three rebellious girls—Nellie, Daisy, and Lou—are sent to a remote island institution, where they form an unbreakable bond in defiance of their strict matron. But as cruel punishments escalate, their friendship is tested, forcing them to choose between resistance and survival.