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A faithful Jehovah's Witness is forced to shun her own sister because of a religious transgression. As the separation draws out, she starts to question the meaning of God's love.
1969
11 March 1992, Salford, Lancashire, England, UK
1967, Lancashire, England, UK
1960, Salford, Lancashire, England, UK
1989, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, UK
20 May 1986, Horley, Surrey, England, UK
July 26, 2018
Best of all, this isn't some seething satirical takedown of the Jehovah's Witnesses as a ridiculous and snicker-worthy denomination.July 29, 2018
The director's sonic austerity and sensual attention to people, moorland vistas and rustling canopies of leaves conjures a rich world around the Whitlings.July 29, 2018
Kokotajlo presents this world from the perspective of somebody who has experienced and understands it.October 09, 2017
Blood proves thicker than (holy) water in writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo's debut Apostasy, one of the year's strongest British films.July 28, 2018
A quietly devastating drama spoken with a fresh, intriguing cinematic voice.July 26, 2018
It is a piercingly well-observed and heartbreakingly sad drama, but above all, impressively restrained, even when the small, stressed family unit is struck by tragedy.July 26, 2018
A scathing critique of inhumanity in the name of religion - in this case, Jehovah's Witnesses - made all the more chilling by its drab colorlessness and mute suffocation.July 26, 2018
Respectful yet sharply critical, the film's specificity about a world rarely seen on screen is gripping, but it's the silent pain of Finneran's performance as the fissures start to appear in Ivanna's life that linger longest.July 26, 2018
Finneran is stoic and mesmerising in a film awash with resentment, duty and an almost comical level of cruelty - perfectly brought to life by all involved.July 26, 2018
The script is superbly restrained, as is the direction, which delicately handles extremely painful situations. Nothing is ever clumsily spelled out.October 08, 2017
"Apostasy" is rare in its visceral and philosophical intensity.July 27, 2018
The lack of music emphasises the religion's starkness. The pared-down performances do more of the same. A disturbing, unflinching debut. One of the year's best British films.