While it is a quote that has been attributed to a number of different people, because the internet can take any quote and place a celebrity alongside it, I thoroughly agree with the opinion that a religious belief is like a penis. It's fine to have one, but it's not good to keep trying to force it upon other people. That goes for any religion, but it's something I feel more strongly about when people try to get me to respect the religious beliefs of those that hold on to their beliefs at the cost of the potential safety of their loved ones.
Apostasy is a film about Jehovah's Witnesses, focusing on three main characters to show the impact, both positive and negative, that the religion has on their lives. Okay, I'm trying to be diplomatic here, but it's almost all negative, despite one character deluding themselves into thinking otherwise. Ivanna (Siobhan Finneran) is the mother of two girls. There's Alex (Molly Wright) and Luisa (Sacha Parkinson). A rift forms between them when Luisa falls pregnant, leading to her being cast out from the "flock". There's also a medical issue that forces Alex into a difficult position.
An astonishingly brilliant and confident feature debut from writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo, Apostasy is a film that perfectly illustrates the dangers of religious dogma while showing everyone involved believing themselves to have the best intentions. People ready to criticise it for the viewpoint it takes would do well to consider how much more damning it could have been, which also allows viewers to consider how varied any one group of people can be, even those following the same religious beliefs.
The central performances help a lot. The focus may be on the younger characters, both of them played superbly by Wright and Parkinson, the former a more committed believer and the latter a doubter who keeps trying for the sake of people she loves, but Finneran is the strained heart of the whole thing. Playing a character who seems to think she has nothing else going for her, if not her faith, Finneran plays someone who could easily be loathsome and over the top as someone quite sad and surprisingly vulnerable. Even as things start to look worse, her faith is all she has. Which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, a cycle she cannot get out of.
Apostasy is not a showy or stylish film, with many shots being fairly static and focusing on one or two characters in conversation, but it is no less brilliant than many other slices of thought-provoking, carefully-crafted, cinema.
Kokotajlo makes his feelings on the central subject clear, but he is also at pains to show that he recognises various aspects of humanity, whether it is conforming to certain rules, rebelling against them, or trying to find some middle ground.
9/10
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