Apostasy **** (2017, Sacha Parkinson, Siobhan Finneran, Molly Wright, Robert Emms) – Movie Review

Writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo’s 2017 British drama Apostasy looks at the Jehovah’s Witnesses through a sharply clear, critical eye in his Oldham-set story of a working class family of three Jehovah’s Witness, a mother and her two daughters.

In particular, Apostasy focuses on a faithful teenage Jehovah’s Witness, Alex (Molly Wright), who is forced to shun her older sister Luisa (Sacha Parkinson) because of a religious transgression, leading Alex to come into conflict with her mother Ivanna (Siobhan Finneran) and to go on to question her faith.

Luisa returns home from college and tells her mother that she is pregnant and that the father is not a Witness. When Ivanna demands that Luisa marries the father, she refuses and is disfellowshipped as a Jehovah’s Witness. Ivanna makes Luisa leave home and shuns her, while the new young elder Steven (Robert Emms) becomes friends with Ivanna and Alex, and proposes to Alex.

Apostasy is a dark, chilly, emotionally and spiritually hard-hitting film, first class in the acting, writing and directing departments, and made for just £500,000. It feels like it is telling the uncomfortable truth. Precision tooled, and scalpel sharp, it has a quietly devastating impact. 

It is a nominee at the London Critics Circle Film Awards 2019 for British/ Irish Film of the Year, Young British/Irish Performer of the Year (Molly Wright) and Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker of the Year (Daniel Kokotajlo). Molly Wright won the Young British/ Irish Performer of the Year award for Apostasy.

It was screened at the London Film Festival 2017. Its UK release was 27 July 2018.

Apostasy is a great credit to first-time feature maker Kokotajlo, following five short films.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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