Written by: Sabrina B. Karine, Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine, Alice Vial
Starring: Lou de Laâge, Agata Kulesza, Agata Buzek, Vincent Macaigne, Joanna Kulig
Rating: [4/5]
When decisions to go into war get made by those in high-ranking positions, they know of the suffering that will occur with individuals on all sides. It’s a given with the weapons used in battle, but another consistent theme has maintained persistent in war is sexual violence towards women who have nothing to do with the war other than occupying space. The Innocents displays a truly tragic tale of women dealing with the repercussions of this with the added wrinkle of them all being nuns.
Working with the French Red Cross Unit in Warsaw during World War II, Mathilde Beaulieu (Lou de Laâge) gets approached by a nun of a local convent. Upon her arrival at the convent she comes to learn that Soviet soldiers have raped many of them with some pregnant as a result causing plenty of internal strife and issues what actions lay before them.
Women have long suffered in wars by just existing and must deal with not only the trauma of the violence towards them but also the fear that it could very much happen again. We have seen these issues time and time again in war films, but never do they exist as the whole focus of them where they receive all the spotlight other than a scene made to round out the male characters of the story. We delve into the lives of these women and the difficult decisions they have before them where it moves beyond just the reality of the fact some of them carry the children of rapists but also how it shakes the very foundation of their faith.
Believing in a higher being comes with the acceptance of bad things happening in the world, but when such evil occurs to individuals as pious as nuns, women who have forsaken everything in life to serve their lord, it understandably causes some to question their faith. How could a God who loves them not stop something this horrendous happening to them? A harsh reality to navigate and this internal struggle consumes some of the nuns going through this horrifying circumstance; it does not even yet include the decisions needing to be made about the babies and the futures they have ahead of them.
The most surprising element this feature has to offer comes in how it continually gets darker in subject matter as it goes along. One would think introducing the fact these nuns have been raped is pretty much as dark as a story can get but with each passing act things continue to get worse and worse as these nuns need to make decisions of the lives they want for themselves and these babies born into a world at war and without the resources to survive. We have these women weighing the reality of what will transpire if they tell people about these pregnancies, and what that means for their standing as nuns and women in this society. Some of the decisions made fall into the category of downright heartbreaking and really digs into what this film seeks to communicate.
In the middle of everything transpiring we have Mathilde trying her best to help these nuns from the medical perspective first and foremost but also trying to apply an outsider’s morality in a circumstance that needs one. With these nuns struggling with their faith, she comes in as an outsider representing science, which typically sits on the other side of religion in various debates. She tries to apply reasons where faith gets utilized within this group of women, and the clash that ensues allows for various philosophical debates grounded not in theory but with the reality of a horrific situation for all involved. An intriguing character to have to deal with this tragedy, and Lou de Laâge does a splendid job in handling this tightrope of a character.
In crafting The Innocents, Anne Fontaine delves into something deeply disturbing and she ensures to capture in such a stark manner. In building out the atmosphere, we can feel the low temperature of this film. It does not just come from all the snow and literal temperature of this circumstance but also the mood where these characters need to make decisions devoid of warmth. Reality matters more than what these characters want to happen and this general coldness just goes in directions that the film should be commended for displaying emphatically.
Certainly not an easy watch by any stretch of the imagination, The Innocents puts us right in the middle of a deeply unfortunate circumstance, only made worse by the decision of the future lying before each of these characters. We feel deeply for these nuns and how the violence they have experienced not only impacted them physically but also emotionally and spiritually as it has broken them in irreparable ways. Women have died with this during every war where they get used for decisions they had no part in making and having this story focus completely on them feels incredibly unique and this film does right by them.
Films with Josh 
