Little reason for joy in post-WWII convent
When I heard The Innocents is about a dark secret in a Second World War Polish nunnery, I assumed it has something to do with the Holocaust. I was only half right.
The time period, December 1945, tells us the war is over, though only just. Mathilde (Lou de Laâge) is a nurse with a French army medical team helping to treat concentration camp survivors. When a Polish nun (Agata Buzek) begs her in broken French to help treat a sick woman, Mathilde tries to redirect her to a local doctor.
But eventually she agrees to visit the convent.
The dark secret is revealed early — one of the nuns is about to give birth. It seems that after the Soviets kicked out the Nazis, some of the Soviet soldiers had their way with the sisters. Six more nuns are expecting.
There is much tension in this drama from director and cowriter Anne Fontaine (Gemma Bovery, Coco Before Chanel). Will Mathilde be caught out by her superiors, or by roving Soviet soldiers? Can the nuns continue to hide their secret?
But the real meat of the story comes in its small moments, when Mathilde is busy examining or counselling her patients. A communist (though not a party member), she professes to atheism, but clearly cares for these women.
Cinematographer Caroline Champetier also worked on the beautiful 2010 film Of Gods and Men, and paints this one in muted tones that emphasize both the dark historical period and the cruel acts that have led to this laboured situation.
There is little talk of joy or the miracle of birth, though there are perfect snippets of philosophy in the screenplay. When Mathilde awkwardly suggests to one of her patients that she can take solace in her faith, the nun replies: “Faith is 24 hours of doubt and one moment of hope.” Yet even in this pessimistic appraisal one senses that one moment might prove to be enough.