Much of the stories told of women during wartime are love stories. This is why the true, heroic story of The Innocents—from French director Anne Fontaine—stands out among other World War II films.
Much of the stories told of women during wartime are love stories. This is why the true, heroic story of The Innocents—from French director Anne Fontaine—stands out among other World War II films. As critics have been swift to point out, it’s a war movie “by women, about women.”
The film begins in Poland, near the end of the war. Mathilde, a Red Cross nurse, is approached by a nun who is desperately searching for medical aid for another young woman in the convent. Reluctant to wander far from her post, Mathilde agrees to help, if only this one time.
What she finds beyond the convent gates is incredible: nine months before, Soviet soldiers came through the region and raped many of the nuns. Now pregnant, with the births imminent, they must hide their condition from the public in order not to lose credence in the community. The task that falls into Mathilde’s hands is gargantuan—she must safely deliver the babies to the traumatized mothers in secrecy.
Shot with stark visuals, the coldness of the countryside comes alive on the screen. Around the convent, the crisp white snow extends limitless in all directions. Are the women abandoned by God, or is their experience evidence of the sublime?