When depicting war and faith, it seems like men are the only ones that have to undertake these challenges, at least it seems, in the stories made available about these topics. But that simply isn’t true. The Innocents is one of the few reminders that, while women might have been kept from the front lines, war has spared no one. Through stark and wintry shots, and a solemn direction, writer-director Anne Fontaine crafts tense conversations between an atheist doctor and her nun patients, making all of them reckon with the ways trauma has shifted their present principles and future actions, in a sensitive way that has rarely been seen before. While the resolution can come across as a bit too sudden, The Innocents nonetheless is a compelling study of faith.
"The Innocents - tackling rape, war and religion - is an ambitious film. The gamble is worth it, though, making for a harrowing portrait of womanhood at war."
— Poppy Doran
Poland, 1945. Mathilde, a young French Red Cross doctor, is on a mission to help the war survivors. When a nun seeks for her help, she is brought to a convent where several pregnant sisters are hiding, unable to reconcile their faith with their pregnancy. Mathilde becomes their only hope.
Warsaw, Poland, December 1945. Serving with an army unit, young French Red Cross doctor, Mathilde Beaulieu roams the country to help survivors of World War II, eventually meeting a group of Benedictine nuns who require her help.
This wouldn’t have worked if it weren’t for the excellent cast and nuanced characterization made possible by having women on the helm.
Cinema as a whole shouldn’t have taken this long to depict the women’s side of war.
Cannes
1 nomination
"A measure of peace and joy is achieved at the end of Fontaine's film, but one wonders what scars remain."
— Kristin M. Jones