This post will contain heavy spoilers, because those are the things I'm most interested in writing about on this movie. Also, 'Apostasy' is a small, obscurish British film, your probably not going to see it.
Manchester, England. Jehovah's Witness family. Mother and two college age daughters. The father is not in the picture, we get no details on him other then that he is still alive. One reason he may not be in the picture is the mother's pretty intense. Ivana Whitling (Siobhan Finneran) loves her daughters, though she is not an emotive person, a bit of a fault finder. She works some kind of office job. There is seemingly not much to her personality beyond her devotion to her faith.
Oldest daughter Luisa (Sacha Parkinson) is going to college, this is atypical for JW's who tend to shun higher education. Luisa enjoys the break from her cloistered upbringing, mixing with those outside the faith she avoids mentioning her background.
Alex (Molly Wright) is the youngest. Sincerely devot. She has a heart condition. Is only alive because doctors forced a blood transfusion at a young age. She has guilt about having someone else's blood in her, as the Witnesses famously disapprove of blood transfusions. She is just out of high school, works as a gardner.
Luisa tells her family she is pregnant. Father is a guy from school, not a Witness and not interested in being one. Luisa is disfellowshiped. She can live at home, but family must minimize contact with her, not talk unless absolutely necessary. Luisa can't take this, she leaves. Stays with boyfriend for awhile, then she breaks it off, gets own apartment, possibly through some kind of Britiah welfare system.
An unusually young Elder named Steven (Robert Emms) moves into the Whitling's congregation. He is taken with Molly. They start a very chaste, chaperoned courtship per JW ways. Molly is worried that Steve will break things off with her when she confesses her childhood blood transfusion. Steve does not break things off, he loves her and is a good guy.
One day Ivana, Alex and Steven attend a small JW party, lammer even then Mormon parties. Alex has some kind of attack... and she dies. This surprised me as the story had been told mostly through Alex's point of view. I thought things were building to Alex having a faith crises (there were a few signs), breaking from the Witnesses, Steven and her mother, reuniting with her sister, probably needing medical intervention at some point.
Funeral. Luisa is allowed to attend. She is devastated. Has a bit of a breakdown, she agrees to go through the process to be restored to full fellowship. Steven is on the committee overseeing this, nice guy he provides Ivana a link to what is going on and takes an active interest in checking in on his would be mother in law, making sure she is okay.
Luisa tries, but some on the committee do seem to have it out for her, very skeptical of her intentions. She also tends to speak her mind more then the male committee appreciates. Eventually she gives up, breaks off again with the faith. Her mother emplores her, but she just can't do it.
Though she is not supposed to Ivana keeps visiting Luisa to help as the pregnancy continues. Steven warns her she could get in trouble, so she reluctantly breaks contact with Luisa.
The baby comes, a girl, Luisa leaves her mom a message. Ivana comes to see her granddaughter, begs daughter to try again to regain her fellowship. She says she can't, but mom is welcome to come visit on the downlow. Ivana says she can't do that, but can she take granddaughter to services? Luisa says no. Then Ivana tries to kidnap her own granddaughter, she wants to "save her". Kidnapping does not succeed. Last scene is Ivana trying to distribute tracts to pedestrians in a square.
Sad. I thought that Ivana would find her way out, unwilling to cut off remaining family after lose of her youngest daughter. Ivana just wasn't strong enough, too conditioned. Though this is the way a situation like this would probably go, I'm sure stuff like this happens all the time.
This is a solid, understated little film. Quite affecting. The Witnesse life seems a desolate one, even by the standards of other high demand religions. I'm glad I wasn't born into it, and I'm glad I saw this movie. ***
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