THE INNOCENTS

Norway, 2021, 117 minutes, Colour.

Rakel Lenora Flottum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Ellen Dorrit Peterson, Kudrow Yusuf.

Directed by Eskil Vogt.

The Innocents was also the title of the 1961 film version of Henry James novel, The Turn of the Screw. This was a story about children, initial innocence, a growing sense of malice and malevolence. The various film versions of The Turn of the Screw set something of a precedent for this unexpected story from Norway.

The film was directed and written by Eskil Vogt, who has made an impact over the years, with his drama film are, and his writing the screenplay for the Oscar-nominated The Worst Person in the World. He has written the screenplay from the point of view of children, but also from the point of view of adults/parents, observing behaviour, puzzled by behaviour, and sometimes victim of such behaviour.

The film opens with the family moving to a country town, a modern apartment complex with woods surrounding as well as a lake in the centre of the community. It is summer, definitely not Norwegian early darkness of autumn and winter. Interesting that a story about malevolence should take place mainly in bright sunlight.

There are two daughters in the family, Ida (Rakel Lenora Flottum) aged nine, the centre of the story. But she has an older sister, Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) who is explained as autistic, an extreme autism, her inability to focus on the reality around her, attracted and bemused erratically, uttering sounds, irritating Ida who almost immediately is seeg pinching her sister hard. So, intimations of hostility, violence and we are wondering where it will lead.

Where it leads, in fact, is Ida going out to play, encountering a young boy, Ben (Sam Ashraf). They click immediately, Ben showing Ida his capacity for a power to move objects by mind control. But, the seeming innocence is soon changed and the tone of the film sent on a particular direction when the two children high in the apartment block and drop a cat down a stairwell. The audience is somewhat relieved when the cat does not die – but, within moments, Ben in a moment of harshness stomps on the cat’s head. In fact, Ida is repulsed.

There is a further complication when Ida puts glass in her sister’s shoe but the audience sees another young girl, Aisha, putting on shoes with glass, her feet cut but her not feeling it. What the film then develops is a relationship between Aisha and the autistic sister, a kind of telepathy, Ben and Ida testing it out with games, and her becoming more communicative, the four children finding some peace in play.

However, it is not to last. This is a film about power, loss of innocence, darkness in children, malice in behaviour, malevolence in attitude. And, Ben embodies it to the full, exercising dark powers which lead to malicious deaths.

Which places a challenge to Ida, to save Anna, to ward off Ben, even to eliminate him, destroy him.

As expected, in the sunlight, the film comes to a conclusion, Ida making decisions, consequences for Anna, and a fate for Ben on a playground swing in that bright sunlight.

And great deal to reflect on in terms of good and evil, intentions of good, intentions of evil, malice, and all in the context of young children.

1. The title and expectations? Children? The initial presentation of the children? The moving to different powers? Sinister behaviour? Moving to malevolence?
2. The Norway settings, the town, the summer, people absent, people returning, the woods, the lake? The interiors of homes? The musical score?
3. The basic presupposition of the narrative, children with powers, using them cruelly, malevolently, against each other? Absolute malevolence? Participating and then change? Victims?
4. The initial car ride, moving to the apartment, the family, the focus on Ida, asleep, innocent, then pinching her sister, her place in the household, age 9, wilful? The relationships with her parents? Going out, the encounter with Ben, the instant friendship, out in the woods, able to move stones and objects, her wanting to try? The pet cat? The staircase, dropping the cat, its injuries, surviving, then finding it, stomping on its head, Ida’s reaction? Later seeing the dead cat? Ida and the relationship with Anna, looking after her, taking her out? The encounters with Aisha? The puzzle about Aisha and the connection with Anna, and her improvement?
5. Anna, the autism, her age, not connecting with people, the sounds, fascination, scribbling on the slate? With her mother? Anna’s treatment? Visit to the therapist? Going out, and Ida putting the glass in her shoes? The switch to Aisha, her mother, her shoes, the blood, her not feeling the wound? The bond between the two girls? The communication, words?
6. Ben, his awareness, the testing out of the communication between the two girls, whispering, distances? The bonding?
7. Ben, the growing malevolence, his power of controlling things, people, the man going onto the bridge, the footballing boy, the murder? Ida becoming more aware of this? Ben at home, the relationship with his mother, her death? His being wrapped in his malevolence?
8. Anna, the realisation, Ida beginning to protect her? Going out with Ben, the model plane, flying it, the bridge, her pushing him over? The woman seeing her, Ida and the reality, her vision of people in the woods, the dark? The car hitting her, hospital, injuries? Ben recovering and getting away?
9. Aisha, the communication with Anna? Her fears at home, her reliance on her mother? Her mother possessed by Ben, stabbing her daughter? Her death, the monument, Ida and her mother present?
10. Anna, the consequences, going out, confronting Ben, the movement of the sand, the water, Ben sitting on the swing, exercising his power, Anna with the stronger power, his sitting dead in the swing?
11. Ida, her concern, breaking the cast, going to rescue Anna?
12. The role of the parents throughout, the father and his work, yet care, the delight in Anna’s improvement, their hopes?
13. The end, and are reverting, Ida with her?
14. The eerie experience for an adult audience, innocence and malevolence of children, and dire consequences?