LES INNOCENTES
France, 2016, 116 minutes, Colour.
Lou de Laage, Agata Buzek, Agata, Kulesza, Vincent Macaigne, Joanna Kulig.
Directed by Anne Fontaine.
It is very significant that 2016 saw two films which explored Catholic themes in a profound way. There was Martin Scorsese’s Silence, the story of the Jesuits in Japan in the 17th century and the fidelity of the laity, even to martyrdom, as well as issues of challenges to faith. There was also Les Innocentes, directed by Anne Fontaine, the harrowing story of a convent of Polish sisters who were abused and raped by invading Russian soldiers during World War II and have to deal with the aftermath in terms of location and faith.
Les Innocentes is a French/Polish production, a French director and two French actors but production and the rest of the cast Polish. This is a stark picture of Poland and the Polish countryside in the post-war winter of 1945.
An interesting comparison is the 2014 Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language film, Ida, a story about a Polish nun, a child during the war, her adoption and the discovery of her Jewish background and her later having to deal with this in terms of vocation.
Silence and Les Innocentes are powerful reminders of Catholic sensibilities, Catholic sensitivities and the depth of Catholic themes.
Audiences who remember the 1959 film, The Nuns’ Story, will remember the similarities in the life of the nuns in the convent, contemplative, enclosed, austere, penitential, an emphasis on obedience, of the vows, the dominating role of the superior. This kind of religious life is only memory for older audiences, a surprise for younger audiences – although there are pockets of religious communities like this around the world today. The stone convent looks grim, the main action takes place in winter, the audience is taken into the chapel frequently for the chanting of the Office, to the corridors, the cells, the refectory. It is interesting to remember that in exactly 20 years, the sessions of the Second Vatican Council would be completed and changes in convent life were in the offing.
Of key importance for the audience is the impact of the rape story, the horror for innocent women, nuns, virgins, with the physical experience of the assault, with the psychological impact of the violation. The nuns are reticent about their condition, embarrassed, some mystified by their experience, a sense of shame, a sense of self-blame, the concealing of pregnancy beneath ample habits, moral issues with which the sisters have to cope.
Of significance is the perspective of the superior, wanting to keep the reputation of the convent respectable, concealing what had happened, stating that she was adopting out the babies, something which is not true. Rather she baptises the babies and leaves them by the wayside crosses. And, while she does mellow in some ways, it is discovered that she has been infected by the Russians with syphilis.
One of the sisters leaves the convent to find some medical help, from the French doctors and nurses present in the Polish village to tend to French wounded before they are repatriated. The focus is on a French nurse (and the film based on a memoir of these events before she died, prematurely, in 1946). She has a Communist background and so the convent tends to be alien territory. As portrayed by Lou de Laage, she is a fine woman, a volunteer, a woman of concern and compassion, engaging with the liaison Sister Maria (Agata Buzek) who speaks French and becomes more and more frank in her discussions with the nurse.
She learned a great deal of medical skills as well as compassion from the nurse and begins to confide in her, even more sympathetic with the sisters when she herself is attacked and threatened by a Russian convoy. She enlists the help of the Red Cross doctor who is Jewish, his family killed in Auschwitz and who interprets the reaction of the superior as anti-Semitic. Nevertheless, he assists with the births.
As the time comes to give birth, many of the sisters are fearful, ashamed, prudish and ignorant. Each of the sisters reacts in her own way, some avoiding the reality, others conscious of their becoming mothers. (In later decades, issues of the appropriateness of abortion in such circumstances were raised in moral and theological discussions. In the last 20 years there have also been quite a number of films about women who were raped in the Balkan wars of the 1990s, questions of abortion, issues of raising the children and the consequences for the children and their origins and legitimacy in Balkan society)
It is important to note that the nuns have to deal with situations themselves, that chaplain not being present, no explanation given but the audience presumes his arrest or his death. These are women’s issues and are dealt with by women assisted by the doctor.
It is the nurse herself who comes up with a solution which is positive for the sisters as mothers and for the local orphans who have been seen playing in and wandering the streets.
In fact, this is a film of faith but, ultimately of hope and charity, symbolised by a charming group photo of the sisters, the children, and the visitors who have been able to come, at last, for the profession of vows by the novices.
The experience of Les Innocentes (the innocents being the sisters as well as the babies) is, at times, emotionally harrowing, always morally challenging, probing the meaning of innocence, suffering and the place and role of God, of faith.
1. World War two story? The experience of war, the aftermath? Poland? The invasion of the Russians? Communist regime? Attitudes towards the Catholic Church, confidence? The French wounded and their care? Rape and abuse?
2. Setting, the convent and interiors, the chapel, the cells, the corridors? The countryside, the roads? The village, the children in the marketplace, the medical centre and its detail? The musical score, the sisters and their chant? The dance music?
3. The title, innocent nuns, innocent babies?
4. The film as a true story, based on a memoir, the nurse dying in 1946? The connection with other Polish films, especially Ida?
5. 1945, the winter, the snow and cold, the changes in weather, grim? Clothes? The fields and snow? Creating a mood and atmosphere?
6. The introduction to the nuns, the number of sisters, singing in the choir, the professed sisters, the novices, the abbess? Their lifestyle?
7. The young system in the chapel, her going out, the snow, walking to the town, children, wanting the money for advice? Not wanting a Polish or Russian doctor? Going to the French Medical Centre? Everybody busy, the wounded, surgery? The sister kneeling outside in the snow and praying? Mathilde and her weariness, sitting, seeing the sister, going to the nun and the convent?
8. The portrait of the abbess, her age, stern, the reputation of the convent and the sisters, her care? The scenes in her office? Emphasis on the vow of obedience? Her gradually relenting about Mathilde? The saying that the babies were adopted? The audience seeing her taking the baby in the basket, baptising it, leaving it at the Wayside Cross? Her praying, leaving the child? The diagnosis that she had been infected with syphilis? The scene in the dining room, the older sister appealing about the adoptions, the disappointment and disillusionment?
9. Sister Maria, the introduction, her age, tall, assisting the abbess, the vow of obedience, receiving Mathilde, letting her in later, her experience with the sisters, the test of her faith, talking about it to Mathilde, her past life, not a virgin, understanding the sisters, the sympathy, the experience of the births? The concealing of the birth of the child, later telling the superior? The abbess and her obedience? The portrait of a nun, and her reasons to stay?
10. Mathilde, her work, at the centre, the postwar experience, French, Communist background, her parents, working for the Red Cross? Helping the doctor? The social with him, the attraction, their talking, dancing, the sexual encounter?
11. Her going to the convent, discovering the pregnant nun, seven months pregnant, the impact of the sexual assault, the rapes, the Russians coming three times? The skills, helping the pregnant nun and the birth? Her tenderness with the nuns?
12. The pregnant nuns, virgins, the shock of the pregnancy, their experiences, the habits concealing their pregnancy? Zofia and the birth, the fears, modest? The baby, the abbess and the promise of adoption?
13. Maria organising the others to be examined, the first nun and her fear, everybody disappearing?
14. The change, the abbess permitting Mathilde to come, the further births, the nun not aware that she was giving birth, the psychological state? Sister Zofia and providing milk, attachment to the child, calling her Helena, her love, sadness, the suicide? Maria going to tell her family – and the discovery that the babies were not adopted?
15. The nun without the habit, talking to Mathilde, deciding to leave, that she was not a mother, that the child would be cared for?
16. The doctor, his work, relationship with Mathilde, Jewish, his story, Auschwitz, his attitude towards the poles? With Mathilde? Going to the convent, assuming the abbess had anti-Semitic attitudes? Helping? The deadline for leaving and packing? The conversation with Mathilde about leaving and the future?
17. The commanding officer, right-wing, attitude towards Mathilde, her being tired, sleeping, his dancing with her?
18. The Russians on the road, halting Mathilde, the attack, her fear, the office commanding saving her?
19. The abbess, ill, syphilis, sitting at the table the table, and the exposure about her plan about the babies? Her taking to her bed?
20. The experience of the orphans, wanting money, the sisters offering shelter and the other babies absorbed amongst the orphans? Reputation saved?
21. The idea, the fulfilment, the nuns as mothers, their joy, tenderness, the orphans and their play?
22. Mathilde in France, the photo, the profession ceremony, the visitors, joy? The taking of the photo?
23. Religious reflection, issues of abuse, rape and pregnancies, moral issues, inexperience and coping, personal warmth, medical care, humanity and life affirming?
