Apostasy review – faith and fellowship in potent account of hidden world of Jehovah's Witnesses

Daniel Kokotajlo’s debut about life among a religious community in Oldham is authentic, sensitive and subtle but has a sledgehammer narrative punch

Here is an utterly absorbing and accomplished debut feature from writer-director Daniel Kokotajlo, known before this for his well-regarded short films Myra and The Mess Hall of an Online Warrior. Apostasy combines subtlety and sensitivity with real emotional power. It also packs a sledgehammer narrative punch two-thirds in, after which life in the film carries on with eerie quietness as usual, while we, the audience, have no choice but to go into a state of shock. It shows that Kokotajlo can really do something so many new British film-makers can’t or won’t: tell a story.

The film is set among a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Oldham in north-west England. Kokotajlo grew up in a Jehovah’s Witness family before leaving the faith while at college, and his writing – detached but calmly observant and sympathetic – is evidently based on a real knowledge of this culture, invisible to outsiders. He has apparently used the JW meeting hall in Oldham for the film: the building’s exterior, at any rate. I have to say that Apostasy exposes the slightly preposterous drama of Richard Eyre’s new film The Children Act, with a similar plotline about Jehovah’s Witnesses, based on the Ian McEwan novel. Apostasy is more knowledgeable, less excitable.

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2hZrmc8