The Jevovah's Witnesses appear, to the outsider, as a strange, cult-like religious grouping. 'Apostasy' is a film about a family living in northern England under the influence of this cult. Their lives appear bleak by design, a series of self-inflicted miseries; it's hard to see a God-of-Love in their beliefs. The film is similarly bleak-natured; unlike Jeanette Winterson's 'Oranges are not the only Fruit', which celebrated rebellion against northern Pentacostals and the joy of new discovery, there's only pain here, as individuals struggle with their deep-seated sense of obligation. Although it the world as depicted appears very old-fashioned, I can believe that for some people 21st-century life is still like this. The film shows us several perspectives; perhaps the narrative would have been more compelling had it centred on just one.
Review of Apostasy
