‘The Innocents’: How Horror Can Be Transformed Into Joy

Last updated on: July 1, 2016 at 7:23 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘The Innocents’: How Horror Can Be Transformed Into Joy 2016-07-01T19:23:25-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Set in Poland in the immediate aftermath of World War II, “The Innocents,” based on a true story, manages to be several things at once, without ever feeling the need to preach, harangue or proselytize.

It’s a war story, a women’s story, and a story of faith, courage and a commitment to life in the face of fear and destruction.

It does what all the best movies do — tell a deeply human story, be fair to everyone involved, and leave it to the audience to make up their own minds. Too few filmmakers have the guts to do this anymore, so kudos to Luxembourg-born director Anne Fontaine , who co-wrote the dialogue with French writer Pascal Bonitzer, from a screenplay by Sabrina B. Karine and Alice Vial.

Mostly in subtitled French, with Polish and Russian, “The Innocents” — originally titled “Agnus Dei” — stars luminous Lou De Laage as Mathilde Beaulieu, a French doctor working for the Red Cross in Poland. Mathilde is based on real doctor Madeline Pauliac, who was also a French resistance fighter.

Steely but compassionate, Communist-raised Mathilde is approached by a determined young Polish nun, who brings her to her convent, and the shocking sight of a habited nun in the throes of giving birth. As the story reveals, Russian soldiers came to the convent three times, raping the nuns each time, leaving seven of them pregnant.

In keeping with the social and religious mores of the time, the nuns not only suffer from the horror and pain of the rapes, but also deep shame. They’ve waited as long as they can in secret, but nature has taken its course, and now they need outside help.

As the unbelieving Mathilde bravely risks her own career and safety to help the sisters, she is drawn into their lives. To the screenwriters’ credit, each nun emerges as a distinct character, with diverse personalities and histories. They are all rape victims, struggling to go day by day while facing the strangeness of giving birth to their attackers’ children (played by some of the most chubby-cheeked babies I’ve ever seen).

The least sympathetic character is the steel-spined abbess (Agata Kulesza), but she is also a victim, not only of rape but of the ravages of late-stage syphilis (I don’t tell you this as a spoiler, but because not enough is made of the psychological effects of this, which include dementia).

The movie is remarkably restrained, avoiding the temptation to dwell too long on either the horror of the attacks — including a near-miss for Mathilde with some Russian soldiers — or to oversentimentalize the scenes of the nuns and their new babies. The emotions feel real but not overwrought.

Catholicism also receives what it seldom does in a movie — a humane, respectful portrayal. Faith is hard for even the most devout of the nuns in the wake of the assaults, but almost all of them hold fast to it, even if they are confused or threatened with despair.

Something I feared might happen did, but it played out as the fault of one person, not of the Faith in general.

This is a difficult film, but it’s also beautiful and uplifting. It ends with no big Hollywood-type transformations or revelations, but there is a profound sense that, while everybody’s life is not changed in the view of the outside world, a deep healing has taken place.

My favorite character was a nun named Maria (Agata Buzek), a woman with a past who fights through the doubt and darkness she feels to be a leader under the most difficult of circumstances. She spouts no platitudes but exemplifies the idea that, while God may not make everything better, He will give you the strength to endure, persevere and survive.

Ultimately, joy and new life spring up from the hard soil of a Polish winter, because the nuns — and Mathilde — have kept hope alive.

This PG-13 film is absolutely not a movie for children or any but the most mature teens. There are scenes of violence, and some non-violent sexual situations. But if I had to choose between a syrupy “faith-based” film and a clear-eyed, fair-minded, intelligent secular movie like this, I’d take “The Innocents” every day.

“The Innocents” currently playing at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema in New York, and the Landmark in Los Angeles. It opens July 8 in Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis, New Haven, Conn., Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., Santa Barbara, Calif., and Washington; July 15 in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Ithaca, N.Y., Newport, R.I., and Sarasota, Fla.; July 22 in Monterey, Calif., and Salt Lake City; and July 29 in Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore., and Fort Worth, Texas, with more cities and home video to follow. (Thanks for this summary to my maybe-cousin Andrew O’Hehir at Salon.com).

Images: Courtesy Mandarin Films/Aeroplan Film/Mars Films

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