Rating: 3.5/5
Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents was not an easy film to watch, but it’s definitely worth watching. Set at the culmination of World War II, the film follows heroine Mathilde Beaulieu: a young woman working for the Polish Red Cross. She is approached by a nun begging her to follow her back to her convent. When Mathilde arrives she helps a woman give birth. She returns the following day and finds several of the nuns are pregnant. This is because Soviet troops that raided the convent months earlier raped them. Mathilde continues to go back to the convent to help the nuns in secret, as the nuns don’t want to truth to come out.
The film deals with a bunch of dark topics, like rape, suicide and infanticide. As you can probably imagine, some parts of the film are gut wrenching. What’s interesting is the trauma the soldiers’ actions had on the nuns and how it affects their faith. After what happened to the nuns, one would find it understandable if they were to lose their faith. But most of them don’t, though it’s difficult for them to comprehend how the atrocities committed against them are part of God’s plan. They are ashamed of what happened, and are reluctant to let Mathilde help them, even at the cost of both their own and their babies’ health.
The complex and dark topics the film covers are heightened by the situation of the victims and the time era. And though some dark topics are dealt with, true humanity, human goodness, and all that sort of stuff shines through. Combined with a picturesque old French town, you get a harrowing but hauntingly beautiful film. All in all, it’s not an easy film to watch, but it’s certainly worth it.