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Beginning (2021) movie poster

Characters & Themes

Beginning (2021) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Release, runtime and language
2021 · 130 min · Georgian
Echo score 75
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Directed by
Dea Kulumbegashvili
Starring
Ia Sukhitashvili, Kakha Kintsurashvili, Rati Oneli

When chaos descends upon a secluded Georgian village, a missionary finds his beliefs challenged as fanatics desecrate a Jehovah's Witnesses sanctuary. The destruction unleashes a profound crisis of faith, forcing him to confront his purpose and embark on a journey of self-discovery and the possibility of redemption amidst the devastation.

On this page (8)
  1. 1 Where to watch
  2. 2 Characters explained (4)
  3. 3 Where & when it takes place
  4. 4 Themes & meaning (3)
  5. 5 Character & meaning questions
  6. 6 Movie threads
  7. 7 Movies like Beginning
  8. 8 Every angle
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4 main characters · contains spoilers

Beginning Characters Explained: Who Is Who

The main characters of Beginning (2021), heroes and villains: what drives them, how they change over the course of the story and what each of them reveals about the film's bigger ideas.

  • Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili)

    Yana is the wife of a religious leader who grows increasingly disillusioned with life inside a patriarchal community. The firebombing becomes a catalyst for her growing interior crisis as she tries to voice her pain and autonomy. Her husband repeatedly minimizes or dismisses her, deepening her sense of isolation. The escalating trauma exposes the fragility of her psyche and her struggle to be heard.

    • 💔 Trauma
    • 🧠 Internal Conflict
    • 👪 Family
  • David (The Religious Leader)

    played by Rati Oneli

    David is the husband and leader of the Kingdom Hall, embodying both spiritual authority and emotional distance. He navigates the community’s demand for rebuilding while resisting his wife’s disclosures. He questions her experience and resists acknowledging the gravity of the assault. His stance highlights the gendered power dynamics inside the marriage and the religious group.

    • 👨‍👩‍👦 Patriarchy
    • 🏛️ Authority
    • 💔 Denial
  • Giorgi

    Giorgi is the couple’s young son, a child caught in the web of strict religious norms and domestic tension. He participates in the baptism and symbolizes innocence within a fragile family unit. His presence amplifies the tragedy as the parents’ conflict and Yana’s ultimate act affect his future. The character emphasizes the human cost of the couple’s crisis.

    • 👶 Child
    • 🕊️ Innocence
    • 🏛️ Religion
  • Alex (The Detective)

    played by Kakha Kintsurashvili

    Alex is the detective from Tbilisi who interrogates Yana about the fire, using invasive and coercive methods. He sexually assaults Yana, representing a predatory abuse of power. The scene with him leaving after the assault and later being depicted in pursuit context underscores the impact of predatory authority. His arc culminates in a mysterious final moment that hints at broader corruption.

    • 🕵️ Detective
    • 💥 Abuse of Power
    • ⚠️ Threat

Last updated: February 10, 2026 at 08:30

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Setting

Where and When Does Beginning Take Place?

The setting of Beginning (2021): the year and time period, the places and locations, and how they shape the characters, the mood and the tension of the story.

Time period

Location

Kingdom Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia

The story unfolds within a Georgian Jehovah's Witness community anchored by the Kingdom Hall. The hall represents both faith and social control, as a firebombing disrupts the family’s world. Action shifts between the church, the couple’s home, police encounters, and the riverbank, painting a landscape of religious devotion colliding with personal crisis.

  • 🏛 Kingdom Hall
  • 🌍 Georgia
  • 👪 Family dynamics
  • 🕊️ Faith
  • 💔 Trauma

Last updated: February 10, 2026 at 08:30

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3 major themes

Beginning Meaning: Themes & Message Explained

What is Beginning (2021) really about? The emotional, social and philosophical themes the film keeps returning to, its symbolism and the message beneath the surface.

  • Trauma

    The film centers on trauma endured within a rigid, patriarchal setting, including sexual assault and emotional manipulation. Yana’s inner life reveals how fear, stigma, and isolation shape her responses and sense of self. The narrative traces the slow erosion of trust and the struggle to be heard within an oppressive system. Trauma becomes a lens through which the audience understands the characters’ choices.

  • Power & Justice

    Institutions and authority figures fail to protect or believe the victim, highlighting systemic flaws. The police pressure to delete evidence and the detective’s abuse of power expose the fragility of justice. The community’s responses reveal how power dynamics distort truth and accountability. The film scrutinizes what justice looks like when power is weaponized.

  • Faith vs Doubt

    Faith acts as both a refuge and a cage, offering meaning while enforcing conformity. Yana’s doubts intensify as she confronts violence, disbelief, and the limits of religious authority. The tension between belief and personal safety drives the emotional core of the story. The film uses religious ritual to contrast inner freedom with external control.

Last updated: February 10, 2026 at 08:30

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Character & theme questions

Beginning Characters & Meaning: Your Questions Answered

The questions people ask about Beginning (2021): who the characters really are, their relationships, what the symbols mean, where it takes place and what the movie is really about. Each answer contains spoilers.

Q1

Where is the movie Beginning set?

Beginning is set in Georgia, primarily within a Jehovah's Witness community centered around the Kingdom Hall in what appears to be Tbilisi. The story unfolds in the family home, during police encounters, and at a riverbank, tracing how the firebombing of the sanctuary disrupts the family's world.

  • kingdom hall
  • tbilisi
  • georgia
  • jehovah witness
  • setting
Q2

What is a Kingdom Hall in the context of the film?

The Kingdom Hall serves as both the spiritual center and social anchor of the Jehovah's Witness community in the film. It represents faith and community belonging, but also acts as a space of social control. When it is destroyed by firebombing, it becomes the catalyst for the family's crisis.

  • kingdom hall
  • jehovah witness
  • religious community
  • sanctuary
Q3

Who is Yana in Beginning?

Yana is the wife of David, the leader of the Kingdom Hall. She is a woman growing increasingly disillusioned with life inside the patriarchal Jehovah's Witness community. The firebombing becomes a catalyst for her interior crisis as she tries to voice her pain and claim autonomy, while her husband minimizes or dismisses her disclosures.

  • yana
  • wife
  • protagonist
  • david
  • religious leader
Q4

Who is David in Beginning?

David is the husband of Yana and the leader of the Kingdom Hall in the Georgian Jehovah's Witness community. He embodies both spiritual authority and emotional distance, navigating the community's demand for rebuilding while resisting his wife's attempts to share her traumatic experience. His stance highlights gendered power dynamics within both the marriage and religious group.

  • david
  • husband
  • kingdom hall leader
  • religious leader
  • patriarch
Q5

Who is the detective in Beginning?

Alex is a detective from Tbilisi who interrogates Yana about the fire. Instead of helping her, he uses invasive and coercive methods, sexually assaulting her while in a position of authority. His character represents the abuse of power and the failure of institutional justice to protect victims.

  • alex
  • detective
  • tbilisi
  • police
  • abuse of power
  • corruption
Q6

What is the main theme of Beginning?

The film centers on trauma endured within a rigid, patriarchal religious setting. Yana's story reveals how fear, stigma, and isolation shape her responses and sense of self. The narrative traces the slow erosion of trust and the struggle to be heard within an oppressive system, using trauma as a lens to understand the characters' choices.

  • trauma
  • patriarchy
  • sexual assault
  • emotional abuse
  • isolation
Q7

What does Beginning say about faith and doubt?

Faith in the film acts as both a refuge and a cage, it offers meaning while enforcing conformity. Yana's doubts intensify as she confronts violence, disbelief, and the limits of religious authority. The tension between belief and personal safety drives the emotional core, contrasting inner freedom with external control through religious ritual.

  • faith
  • doubt
  • religion
  • jehovah witness
  • belief
  • doubt
Q8

How does Beginning explore power and justice?

The film shows how institutions and authority figures fail to protect or believe the victim. The police pressure Yana to delete evidence, and the detective abuses his power, exposing systemic flaws. The community's responses reveal how power dynamics distort truth and accountability, questioning what justice looks like when power is weaponized.

  • power
  • justice
  • police
  • corruption
  • institutional failure
  • abuse
Q9

Who is Giorgi in Beginning?

Giorgi is the young son of Yana and David, caught in the web of strict religious norms and domestic tension. He participates in baptism and symbolizes innocence within the fragile family unit. His presence amplifies the tragedy as the parents' conflict and Yana's ultimate act affect his future, emphasizing the human cost of the family's crisis.

  • giorgi
  • son
  • child
  • innocence
  • baptism
  • family
Q10

What is the tone of Beginning?

The film's tone is consistently bleak, driven by the protagonist's isolation and the failure of her support systems. The pacing is slow, focusing intently on Yana's interior psychological state, which amplifies feelings of dread and powerlessness. The ending is unrelentingly bleak, offering no redemption or hope, leaving only destruction and ambiguity.

  • tone
  • bleak
  • psychological
  • trauma
  • emotional weight
  • heavy

Movie threads

More Movies Like Beginning, by Mood & Story

Curated lists built around what makes Beginning tick: the same mood, the same kind of story or the same emotional payoff. Each list explains why these movies belong together.

Slow burn psychological collapse movies like Beginning

Stories where psychological tension builds relentlessly toward crisis. Find movies similar to Beginning that explore slow burn psychological collapse. If you liked the building tension and heavy emotional weight of Beginning, these films feature a gradual descent into despair and crisis of faith.

  • oppressive
  • slow burn
  • psychological
  • despairing
  • unsettling
  • traumatic
  • Tone: bleak, oppressive, despairing
  • Pacing: slow, deliberate, lingering
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narrative pattern follows a protagonist isolated by trauma or ideological conflict. The pacing is slow and deliberate, amplifying a sense of dread as their psychological foundations crumble, often culminating in a stark, bleak realization or act.

Why they belong together: Movies are grouped here based on their shared focus on a slow, immersive build of psychological tension, a heavy emotional weight, and a tone of unrelenting bleakness that prioritizes internal turmoil over external action.

Crisis of faith movies similar to Beginning

Stories where profound trauma forces a reckoning with core beliefs. Discover films like Beginning that delve into a crisis of faith. If you were gripped by the exploration of shattered beliefs and institutional failure in Beginning, these movies feature similar journeys of disillusionment.

  • traumatic
  • despairing
  • somber
  • unsettling
  • psychological
  • anxious
  • Tone: bleak, somber, traumatic
  • Pacing: slow, contemplative
Why these movies?

The story pattern: The narrative follows a character whose deeply held convictions are violently challenged, leading to a painful journey of deconstruction. The story examines the gap between doctrine and harsh reality, often resulting in isolation and a bleak, ambiguous resolution.

Why they belong together: They share a central theme of ideological collapse triggered by trauma, featuring emotionally heavy stories with a bleak tone and a focus on the psychological impact of losing one's foundational beliefs.

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Movies Like Beginning

Similar movies to Beginning: the same genre, themes or kind of story. Each one comes with its own plot summary, timeline and ending explained.

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Every angle

Beginning (2021) Explained: Plot, Timeline & Characters

Everything about Beginning in one place: what happens in the plot summary, the timeline in chronological order, the characters and meaning and a spoiler-free summary. What's After the Movie adds the cast, box office and post-credit scenes.

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