Mathilde
Beaulieu’s faith will be challenged by the horrors she witnesses as a Red Cross
doctor during WWII—her Communist faith. She was supposed to oversee the
repatriation of French POW and concentration camp prisoners, but she also
reluctantly started treating the nuns of convent repeatedly raped by the
conquering Soviet Red Army. To do so, Beaulieau will risk more than her
ideology in Anne Fontaine’s The Innocents
(trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
Beaulieu’s
mission parameters are rigidly focused on French nationals, so she tries her
best to turn away the distraught nun. Her Communist materialism also makes her
instinctively antagonistic towards the Catholic Church. However, she ultimately
relents, moved by the woman’s desperation and apparent piety. When she arrives
at the convent she immediately understands why the sisters refused to seek help
from the Russians or fellow Poles.
She
finds one nun on the brink of delivery and many others in advanced stages of
pregnancy. They were the spoils of war for our Russian allies, who raped them
repeatedly during several visits. Fearful the future Soviet-dominated government
will use the pregnancies to discredit the Church, the Mother Superior is
desperate to keep their condition secret. The nuns’ vows of modesty also make
routine examinations difficult. Yet, the nuns slowly start to trust Beaulieu,
especially the worldlier Maria, who joined the order after having experienced a
bit of secular life.
Based
on the records of French Resistance and Red Cross physician Madeleine Pauliac
(whose nephew Philippe Maynial developed the film’s original story), Innocents is an uncomfortably true
episode of WWII history. Undoubtedly, some churlishly pedantic critics will
object to the bestial depiction of the Red Army. Yet, the awkward truth is
Stalin had largely purged anyone from the military who exhibited any signs of
intelligence or talent by this time. All that were left were the brutish and the
blindly loyal, so yes, the film portrays them with rigorous historical
accuracy.
It
will also be tempting for some to think of Innocents
as a prequel to the Oscar-winning Ida,
especially since Agata Kulesza and Joanna Kulig appear in both films, albeit in
radically different roles. While the latter was the standout as the notorious
Communist hanging judge in Pawlikowski’s film, she has a harder time humanizing
the rigid Mother Superior, which becomes somewhat problematic.
Regardless,
French rising star Lou de Laâge is terrific anchoring the film as Beaulieu. She
has a smart, forceful presence much greater than her slender size would
suggest. She also forges some intriguing chemistry with the resilient Sister
Maria, played with earnest grit by Agata Buzek. (We frequently defend the
under-rated Jason Statham film Redemption,
so it is worth noting that is where Fontaine first saw the accomplished Polish
thesp.)
