patil_umesh
This film is based on true events in Poland. After the end of World War II in 1945, many polish nuns in catholic convent became pregnant one after the other. This revealed that these women were physically abused and raped by Russian army. During that time a communist French nurse,Madeleine Pauliac working for Red Cross came to treat wounded Russian soldiers look after these women. The lady doctor performs a noble task beyond her duty to reduce labour pain, help during them child birth. She secretly visits convent to treat patient nuns, provide medicines,and save many babies. She took risk of her life and from being fired from her job for treating enemy. Nuns had chosen to remain celibate,but become victim of rape and lose virginity. Lead sister in convent tried to keep this secret to avoid their condemnation and dismissal from society. Few babies were sent to their relatives, few were sent to adaptation house. One baby was left abandoned over snow-capped hill to let somebody own it. This movie is excellent art. Visuals, colour schemes are stunning. Costumes of nuns, their paths of celibacy,devotion towards Jesus, sermons recited by them are spiritually blissful. Suffering and outcry of women during childbirth is heartbreaking. Women were looked only as an instrument of sexual gratification, while they were performing exhausting task in cooking, cleaning and other households. This film indirectly raises questions upon inhuman behavior by during war. This film reminded me an Oscar winning film, Ida, based upon nun who chose to devote herself to god.
krisztyxx
First thing I thought when I watch the movie was this: When your lose faith in the world, what can you do? what you can keep in your life before? That is the question the characters asked and tried to find the answer during the movie.Mathilde Beaulieu (Lou de Laâge) just drop in the nunnery's life during the war, and find dreadful secret between the walls. She assisted the nuns to get them-self the horrible events in the past months. The movie presented women destiny in war circumstances. We see a doctor how to help people and tried to keep his profession, also we see women whose attempted to keep their faith, pureness and solemn promise to god. Two world to see in the movie, two different space and life. The first is the outside world we inlook a the Red Cross life in the eyes of a woman who work there. The other is the nunnery's world. This is a different lives, it closed full with rules. The events the happened in the past to query this. Women therein space struggle between two unalike thought. What can they do? To keep their faith before or give up and find another? Someone give up and live this life, some stay and keep going the old way. If you want to see women destiny and strong women characters you have to see this movie. In this movie have wonderful women characters.
Paul Allaer
"The Innocents" (2016 release from Poland; 115 min.) brings the story "based on actual events" we are reminded at the beginning of the movie, of a convent for nuns in Poland, not long after the end of WWII. As the movie opens, the nuns are singing their Latin chants, as we hear a piercing scream in the background. It;s not long before one of the nuns convinces Mathilde, a woman at the French Red Cross to come with her for help. We see a woman, highly pregnant, and Mathilde performs an emergency caesarean> As it turns out, the Russian soldiers have done unspeakable things to the nuns. What will become of the convent? and the pregnant nuns? and Mathilde? To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest film from French director Anne Fontaine, who most recently brought us the engaging "Gemma Bovery" and some years before that "Coco Before Chanel". Here she tackles a tough subject matter, namely what is a convent of about 25-30 nuns to do when, raped by Russian soldiers, a number of them become pregnant. (In the movie's end credits I picked up that the film is inspired by the French woman Madeleine Pauliac's Red Cross missions in Poland. The movie's script is from a nephew of Pauliac,) Fontaine thankfully decides to keep things somber and the movie almost feels like it's shot in black and white. Beware: there were a number of scenes that I had to cover my eyes, literally. How this movie is rated PG-13, instead of R, is a mystery to me. The role of Mathilde is played by up-and-coming French actress Lou de Laâge. Surely we have not seen the last of her. The performances from the nuns are equally up to par, but at times it's tough to keep track of whom is who, as they frankly all pretty much look alike, resulting from the way they are dressed. The movie was shot on location in Poland. Two years ago Poland brought us another outstanding post WWII nun drama called "Ida". "The Innocents" readily reminded of "Ida", although I think "Ida" was still a little better (it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language movie, if I recall)."The Innocents" finally opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended nicely. I had expected it to be a packed house, but that was not the case, to my surprise. At the same time, it's not like you will walk away from "The Innocents" saying, well, that was a jolly good time!". "The Innocents" is not that type of movie. If on the other hand you are in the mood for a top notch foreign drama that deals with some very tough issues (and happens the be based on real-life events), then I would readily suggest you check out "The Innocents", be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. "The Innocents" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
