'The Innocents'

"The Innocents" is a truly religious film. Religious films focus on God, not the trappings of God or His human mouthpieces.

“The Innocents” is about nuns - and we can never have too many films about nuns! It is set in a convent in Poland in 1945 (at the end of World War II) where horrors have occurred; horrors not just from the war and the Nazi occupation, but from the newly occupying Red Army.

SPOILER ALERT: The film is about the fact that many of the Sisters were raped by Russian soldiers and are now pregnant. Each Sister, from the Mother Abbess to the youngest novice, deals with it in her own way.

Thankfully, "The Innocents" is a very sensitive, non-sensational film based on actual events (many nuns have been raped and gotten pregnant during other wars, too) that manages to enter deeply into the psychology of this very pointed and specific trauma.

A young female doctor working with the French Red Cross is summoned to the convent to assist in the several births that will be occurring all around the same time. She does so at great peril to her own life and at the risk of being penalized by her superiors. The Mother Abbess's main concern is to keep the "scandal" and "secret" quiet. Her utmost concern is the "honor" of her convent (as if they were at fault somehow!) The babies will be quietly given to relatives of the Sisters to raise.

There are many nourishing discussions about doubt, faith in God, the problem of evil, "God's will," and happiness, among the nuns themselves and with the young doctor. Over time, most of the Sisters are able to accept and embrace the life within them (without accepting the heinous and harrowing violation).

I believe that any sexual-abuse or rape survivor will appreciate this film. Never is their ordeal downplayed or shown for anything other than the egregious, monstrous crime it is. And yet, a sisterhood of solidarity and trust develops, which includes the young doctor, and they are able to support each other and even find joy in the tiny beings (of whom they are true mothers) who are soon to emerge.  What transpires from here I will not spoil.

"The Innocents" is styled in a strongly European strain, which is positive if you like slower-moving films, unfolding and reflective in real-time (especially at the beginning), that are not afraid to examine the human condition in its stark interiority. American films are afraid to do this, but excel at showing stark exterior realities.

The nuns are three-dimensional characters with backstories, and even the most fearful nuns are genuine in their timidity. And for all their skittishness about sexuality, these nuns are very demonstrative and huggy.

Thank you to director Anne Fontaine for caring about rape victims everywhere – and about the lives of nuns. Thank you to the 15 production companies involved in the making of “The Innocents” for telling yet one more of the millions of stories of suffering from "The Good War" and Communist oppression that are dying to be told.