Young and innocent

Eskil Vogt’s powerful new film – a coming-of-age story that’s also a battle between good and evil played out between children – boasts a brilliant young cast and an unflinching gaze, says Daniel King

The Innocents Dir Eskil Vogt, Norway 2021 In cinemas and online

Nothing whatsoever to do with Henry James (or Deborah Kerr), this Norwegian supernatural horror starts slowly but gradually draws you in and puts you under its spell.

The film centres on a bunch of children on a housing estate. There is Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum), a resentful girl who is jealous of her autistic elder sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), who gets all the attention from their parents. There is Ben (Sam Ashraf), an Asian immigrant who lives with his neglectful mother and spends most of his time outside. And there is Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim), a kind-hearted little girl who lives with her mother and misses her absent father.

Ida and Anna are new arrivals to the estate and they quickly become friends with Ben and Aisha. In particular, Anna and Aisha form a strong bond and it appears that Aisha can communicate with the otherwise

Ben has an extraordinary gift, and can move objects by thought

mute autistic girl. Ben too appears to have an extraordinary gift, demonstrating to Ida that he can move objects by thought. However, the friends begin to drift apart as Ben starts to enjoy tormenting others with his increasingly powerful gift. Soon events turn very dark and battle lines are drawn for a lethal final confrontation.

For a while there, I didn’t think I would be able to get through the whole thing. The scenes of Anna being tormented, and of bullying and animal abuse, are depicted with such an unsparing gaze that I found it difficult to watch. I did stick with it, though, and was rewarded with one of the best films I’ve seen so far this year.

I said that The Innocents is a “horror” film, and while there are multiple murders, knifewielding maniacs and so on, the film presents these as incidents in a wider story rather than as an end in themselves. For what we are watching is a morality tale, a coming-of-age story, and ultimately an existential battle between good and evil, played out among children.

That it works so well is of course down to writerdirector Eskil Vogt, but he is helped massively by excellent performances from the child actors. Rakel Lenora Fløttum faces a considerable challenge to play a nine-year-old who is just beginning to develop a sense of right and wrong, but she is marvellous (incidentally, her onscreen mother is played by her real-life mother, Ellen Dorrit Petersen). Sam Ashraf too has a difficult role as the malevolent Ben, but still manages to eke out sympathy for him as a lonely and frustrated little boy.

I would recommend The Innocents to anybody, not just genre fans. Having said that, I know it won’t appeal to everybody: it takes a while to get going, is uncomfortable viewing at times and doesn’t do anything flashy. But it is unique, and that in itself is a reason to see it.

Daniel King

★★★★★