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Pregnant nuns. A reality when the world is at war and some lose their sense of humanity, respect and the common decency in the treatment of others. This is a film that looks into how these nuns had to face the abuses they suffered at the hands of others, how they were to cope with the consequences of said abuse and the religious ideology they hold so dear.

The acting, filming and the seriousness of this were all done well. It manages to catch your attention and never gives the viewer the opportunity to look away. I'm glad I took the time to watch it.

From the director Anne Fontaine. Like any of her works, this is another top class women oriented film. But it was partially based on the incredible true story. Partial means, no one knows what was the actual event. The director and her writers inspired by the diary the French doctor who worked for Red Cross in Poland at the end of the World War II, who wrote down her experience on it. So, with the small-small facts the story was built on for the film. Well done job by the cast and crew.

Whenever you hear the word/abbreviation 'WWII', it always bound with nazi Germans. Since this tale takes place just after the war, when the Soviet took over the Poland from them, it is set to reveal one of the extremely hidden secrets. Just imagine how secret it is, like you have read many books and have seen many films regarding the WWII, but you have never heard about this, until now. It is a heart rending tale, but the thing is everything's about the aftermath, how they handled their state of condition.

Mathilde, the French doctor is fetched by a nun from the nearby convent is shocked when she reached there to see most of them are in the final stage of their pregnancy. They were sexually abused by the Soviet soldiers, but now she as to keep it quiet as requested by the mother superior. She's being an atheist and to whom she's treating, the believers, is exactly the opposite kind. But not just her, the nuns as well put aside their differences to overcome their situation.

❝For us nuns, the end of the war does not mean the end of fear.❞

It's right on the coldest winter, does not tell about the original violence, but there's still a few incidents about the army atrocities, how they treated innocent nuns, even the Red Cross members. But remember nothing was the actual depiction. It would have been even better if it was a documentary film. Doing some research and telling us the tale, reading exactly as what was written in the diary. But the film was not bad, except the scene to scene, event to event it was very slow to move, except right on the point.

The story has a twist, but it was not like very powerful. It depends on how you would consider it. Because for me, I felt it was too cruel, hard to take on. The story about church people means, you would expect a gentle kind. Or even in such situation, as in this film, to react as much as possibly generously as what they're known for. But in the first place, it was no ones fault. They all fighting for the same reason, especially keeping the outside world in mind, each one reacted differently. So it is understandable, but not all the acts were respectable.

As the director said in her interview, this is a period film, but pretty much the same in the contemporary world where war is on. The violence against the innocent women. So it is a debatable topic. And if it was directed by some male filmmaker, he might have risked with the violences in the flashback scenes to bring more depth in the narration. The present film is kind of compromises on that, but still not easy to watch everything it shows. Particularly for the families. Great performances by all. One of the best films on this theme and of the year. The film is not to be ignored. Despite not about the war, but just like 'Under Sandet', about the following event.

8/10

Powerful tale of a convent that has its inhabitants violated by Russian soldiers in ww2. How they come to terms with their most primordial maternal instinct is what forms the meat of the story. Good solid filmmaking.

The frequent attention that WWII and its consequent problems has received on cinema is suffocating. Les Innocent, however, is one film that goes further, beyond the French Occupation, the megalomaniac character of the first half of 20th century political leaders, the dramatic tales of the Jews, the destruction and radicalism based on nationalisms, and so on. This time is all about a silent, intimate and confronting story developed in a polish convent. The role of woman in the war society has a special attention this time, from two different perspectives: the new free women that can decide her own destiny and find its best metaphor in the French Marianne; the second one, the centenary image of the catholic sacred women, the virgin.

These two characters, which embody very well some of the tensions that were deliberated during the world war period, find a perfect justification this time on the dialogues, silences and actions. The polish has been a traditional segregated population and, somehow, this nation has found its historical version on the figure of the European martyr. So, we have an intense, but predictable, argument between these two evocations of a women. Marianne is obviously characterized by a French woman, who is always willing to attend others, who finds its better version on a nurse. Her conflicts end up always with a condescending gesture. She is made to represent the good between an ocean of evil, but with the French usual hostility.

But the spectator loses its distance from the world context very easily, because of the intimate voice of the film. The virginal victims are in the middle of a complex scenario, in which violence is expressed on every little action. But this portray of the WWII has a common place that we, the occidental spectators, are very used to. The evil soviets, closer to madness than ever before, carriers of a voluptuous and dark behaviour. At this point, the idea is well exposed: Marianne rescues and supports the oppressed nations, the martyrs, by the horrible and destructive hands of Stalin. One more time, we see the same stereotype on the screen.

Nevertheless, it is important to say that beyond this argumentative political line, which is subtly exposed, there are very rich elements that make of this one a remarkable film. Not because of the predictable approach it has, but because of the portray of a very moving case which is worthy to be seen. The photography stablishes a constant dialogue with the interior dramas of the nuns. The sound has a very powerful role, which is complemented with the excellent acting skills of the women. It is poetical when it demands to be.

So gripping is this film that I didn't hear a sound from the audience--no talking, none of the usual rattle of bags of popcorn! While I would like to know now, now that I've seen the film, what parts of it are based on actual events, almost everything in the film seemed utterly true. This is not for film-goers who seek amusement, light entertainment, confirmation that the world is a just place. This could have been an unrelentingly grim film, because we see a great deal of the dark side of human nature. Instead, the characters have a wonderful complexity that allows us to empathize and hope. The themes are also rendered with complexity—we get to understand what initially seems incomprehensible. The acting is very fine, indeed. The landscapes are haunting. There is a lot of tension in the movie that provides forward momentum. We've seen many, many films set during World War II but rarely a film that deals with some of its consequences. This is one very worth seeing!

A gripping and simple movie showing and showcasing one of the ugly facets of any war, the matter represented world war II events after it ended and its horrors still being there, remaining and present; in Poland, in December 1945.

Everything was more simple back then and you can feel it, you can sense that by their angelic faces, by their illogical behavior mixed with hope, emotions and laced with dejection and anger, by their hearts beating so true, by their limpid eyes mirroring both the horrors, sadness and to some extent joys of their lives.

The movie is one simple one, hell of an experience, a mosaic of human nature and best represented by its title. "Les innocentes" !

• Screenplay/story: 8
• Development: 7.5
• Realism: 8
• Entertainment: 7
• Acting: 7.5
• Filming/cinematography: 7
• VFX: 7.5
• Music/score: 7.5
• Depth: 7.5
• Logic: 7
• Flow: 7.5

-Drama/history: 8

• Ending: 7.5.

One of the best movies of the year 2016, IMHO!!! Didn't get a lot of mention at Awards time, but certainly as important as a political comment on a true story as, say, Spotlight. The Russians have gotten an easy pass in the movie business, compared to the likes of Nazi Germany and Racist United States which have been turned every way but loose as far as getting raked over the coals by cinema.

This quiet little story of Russian soldiers raping Polish nuns balances that trend in movies. Set after the war in 1945 as the Russians take over Poland, but the French Red Cross is still there, it's a reminder that there are always a few good people in the midst of the thugs. May the young French actress Lou de Laage have a long and happy career. She certainly has a good start here.

Besides excellent acting and story telling, maybe it's the filming and mood created by this movie that makes it so good. You would think it painful to watch considering the subject, but it's not. Great shots of snowy, muddy roads and rambling old trucks offset by warm glow of music in a candle lit bar. Then the nuns, in a bleak cold stone refuge, yet in spite of their hardship, they are full of heart and life.

Seven months after the end of the European theater of WW2, a nun from a convent in Poland seeks the aid of a French Red Cross worker, who's helping French survivors of the concentration camps (Lou de Laâge). It turns out that some Russian soldiers paid a barbaric visit to the convent when they were taking over the territory months earlier.

"The Innocents" (2016) is based on the true story of Madeleine Pauliac when she was working as a doctor in Poland, renamed Mathilde Beaulieu for the movie (Lou). It has a similar milieu to "Black Narcissus" and "Agnes of God," except that it's rooted in a real-life account. It's not as good the former IMHO, but it's superior to the later.

You could call this a WW2 drama and it works as a realistic period piece. I'm glad the scriptwriters added the relationship of the Hebrew doctor with the protagonist, which works up both historical and human interest amidst the glum proceedings. Lou de Laâge is one of the highlights. She's a pleasure to behold and her lips are exquisite.

The film runs 1 hour, 55 minutes, and was shot in northeastern Poland at Morag, Krosno and Orneta.

GRADE: B.

This film is based on true events in Poland. After the end of World War II in 1945, many polish nuns in catholic convent became pregnant one after the other. This revealed that these women were physically abused and raped by Russian army. During that time a communist French nurse,Madeleine Pauliac working for Red Cross came to treat wounded Russian soldiers look after these women. The lady doctor performs a noble task beyond her duty to reduce labour pain, help during them child birth. She secretly visits convent to treat patient nuns, provide medicines,and save many babies. She took risk of her life and from being fired from her job for treating enemy.

Nuns had chosen to remain celibate,but become victim of rape and lose virginity. Lead sister in convent tried to keep this secret to avoid their condemnation and dismissal from society. Few babies were sent to their relatives, few were sent to adaptation house. One baby was left abandoned over snow-capped hill to let somebody own it.

This movie is excellent art. Visuals, colour schemes are stunning. Costumes of nuns, their paths of celibacy,devotion towards Jesus, sermons recited by them are spiritually blissful. Suffering and outcry of women during childbirth is heartbreaking.

Women were looked only as an instrument of sexual gratification, while they were performing exhausting task in cooking, cleaning and other households. This film indirectly raises questions upon inhuman behavior by during war. This film reminded me an Oscar winning film, Ida, based upon nun who chose to devote herself to god.

The French film Les innocentes was shown in the U.S. with the translated title The Innocents (2016). Anne Fontaine directed this powerful movie.

The year is 1945, just after the end of World War II. A French Red Cross unit is sent into Poland. Their mission was to care for French survivors of the camps. Among the Red Cross staff is a young medical student, Mathilde Beaulieu, played by Lou de Laâge. Early in the film, we learn a terrible secret about the nuns in a nearby convent. Many of them are pregnant, because they were raped by Russian soldiers. Mathilde learns of this, and she is allowed to enter the convent, where she meets Sister Maria, a French-speaking nun played by Agata Buzek. To go further with the plot would diminish the movie, so I'll stop at that point. Let me just say that the situation is even worse than it seems.

This is a movie that is not to be missed. Yes, it's grim, but postwar Poland was a grim place. The film takes place in winter, so snow covers everything, and even the Red Cross staff is miserable. Obviously, for the nuns in the convent, everything is much more terrible.

The acting in the film by the two lead actors is outstanding. Also, the ensemble acting was wonderful. There were no weak links, and no obviously staged scenes. Everything looked real--cold, dark, and threatening--but real.

This is one of those movies where many frames could be lifted from the film and used as a photograph. My compliments to cinematographer Caroline Champetier, who did a brilliant job.

We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre in Rochester, NY. It will work well enough on the small screen, but the large screen gives you a better sense of the isolation of the convent. The nuns don't expect help from outside. They only expect harm to come to them. Mathilde is the exception, and they (and we) understand that. Small screen or large screen, don't miss this movie!

P.S. The film is based on the experiences of a French doctor--Madeleine Jeanne Marie Pauliac. She was a member of the French Resistance, and did, indeed work tirelessly in Poland after the war. For artistic reasons, director Fontaine focused on Dr. Pauliac's work with the pregnant nuns. The rest of her accomplishments would also make a fascinating movie.

Close your eyes and think about the film Wuthering Heights, try to remember Olivier as Heathcliffe, the Yorkshire Moors swept with rain, fog and snow, and the forbidding house whose young master bullied Heathcliffe away and add Cathy's great performance. This film "The Innocents" captures the Spirit of Wuthering Heights in a post wartime Polish Monastery setting, this film portrays the liberation of Poland from the Nazis, who were supplanted by the vodka, vulgar and volva Russians, who raped the Nuns in this monastery causing several to become pregnant and bitterly ashamed of what had occurred, so much so that they shunned outside help, hid behind closed doors and walls, surrounded by the legacy of a wartime Poland ( Polish saying: Lifes bitter lessons I recall, I seem to remember them all) Aid arrives in the form of a French Doctor working locally for the French Red Cross, who solves their pressing problems. The Sound of Music this film ain't, its storyline is more powerful, more moving and another triumph for the French Film industry. A great film, a wonderful moving film, and a lesson in film making to all.

In case the 2013 movie Ida did not give you enough of a taste of the bleak Polish landscape post-World War II and the existential difficulties a young novice there may face, The Innocents gives a whole convent of them. The opening credits note the film is based on real events. These were documented by Madeleine Pauliac, a member of the French Resistance and a Red Cross doctor in charge of repatriating French soldiers scattered in camps and hospitals across Poland at the end of the war. Her nephew helped develop the movie, using her notes. French Director Anne Fontaine and a team of writers have brought to life this sensitive story of the aftermath of the country's "liberation" by the Soviet army. In the soldiers' point of view and with their commanders' encouragement, this meant enjoying the spoils of war. As a result, at least seven of the twenty or so Benedictine nuns in this isolated convent are pregnant. "What at first appears to be an austere, holy retreat from surrounding horrors is revealed to be a savagely violated sanctuary awash in fear, trauma and shame," says Stephen Holden in the New York Times. While the Sisters have taken vows to hide their bodies from the view and touch of others, when the babies start coming, life gets complicated. Childbirth is a terrifying physical, emotional, and most especially, spiritual crisis for the young nuns, who feel abandoned by God. Hearing her Sister's plaintive cries, a young novice runs to the nearby village in search of a doctor who is not Polish and not Russian. She finds an aid station staffed by the French Red Cross. Will the young doctor Mathilde (modeled on Pauliac in a stirring and subtle performance by Lou de Laâge) help? Will she be allowed to? What will become of these babies? Keeping the children would bring scandal down on the heads of the nuns, whose situation is precarious, given the post-war privations, the suppression of the Church by Poland's new Communist regime, and popular prejudice against illegitimate babies and unwed mothers, regardless of circumstances. They are sitting ducks. While you might be tempted to think of this movie as a period piece, wars with rape as a tactic continue today, with the young women victims often ostracized from their communities and families. The stern Mother Abbess (Agata Kulesza, also in the cast of Ida) swears Mathilde to secrecy about the births, but is quietly frantic they will be discovered. The Mother Abbess has her own probably fatal post-rape difficulty, but this is inconsequential compared to her fear for the loss of her soul. Acting as intermediary, Sister Maria (Agata Buzek), serves as translator, though the cultural divide remains almost unbridgeable. Says Christy Lemire in Rogerebert.com, Mathilde, the non-believer, is "a voice of reason in a place of sacred mystery." The fine acting in this movie helps it maintain a quiet dignity and lack of sentimentality about this whole ugly business. In French and Polish, with subtitles.

Many young people and westerners will dismiss this movie because it was soviet soldiers that attacked the nuns. The truth is, hundreds of thousands of women of all ages, during and after the war, were raped by soldiers of every army. American, German, Soviet, Italian, Japanese, Australian, British, etc ALL had offenders. All should be ashamed. Those who took part, those that stood by and did nothing and those that deny "their' boys wouldn't do such a thing. It continues today.

Not that great but not that bad either. Very slow pacing.. You can watch it while playing with your phone. Or skip it on every seconds but yet you will still understand the movie. I mean the plot and storyline is good but i'm not gonna watch it for a 2nd time.

That's why I go to film festivals, (mostly the Jerusalem Film Festival). For the opportunity of seeing such rare masterpieces. A perfect blend of acting - especially the three leads but there's not a single false note from any of the characters we get to see on screen; Cinematography; and story telling.

Lou de Laage, Agata Buzek and Agata Kulesza, are simply superb in their roles, but they are only the cherries on the top of one of the best ensemble works I've ever seen. The cinematography is breathtaking. And the story, it's more than a simple story about the horrors of war, and how it preys on the innocents. It's a story about the morals of faith. About believing in god's grace comes what may, as opposed to believing in the holiness of life. If you get a chance to see it, don't miss it - you won't regret it.

During the winter of 1945, a young French intern working with a branch of the Red Cross is on a mission to care for and repatriate French survivors of the German concentration camps in Poland. A Polish nun arrives at the Red Cross hospital and begs for help. At the convent, the doctor discovers several nuns in the advanced state of pregnancy after having been raped by soldiers in the invading Russian military.

Several factors are at work here, making this film an extraordinary achievement: the brilliant direction of Anne Fontaine, the cinematography of Caroline Champetier that captures the bleak post-war landscape of Poland, and the brilliant performances of the acting ensemble. As many reviewers have observed, there is not a single false note in the film. But this is not a film about World War II, nor is it about rape. There are scenes of neither, which makes the consequences of unseen events an even more powerful force in the lives of these women of faith and compassion. It is difficult to imagine a bleaker setting or sadder circumstances, yet there is not a hint of the cynicism pervasive in so many contemporary American movies.

Based on real events in the life of French doctor Madeleine Jeanne Marie Pauliac, a member of the French Resistance who worked in Poland after World War II, "The Innocents" is one of the finest films this reviewer has ever seen-in the history of cinema. For anyone who believes in the art of movie making and the redemptive power of love, this is as good as filmmaking gets.

This is a deeply engrossing and profound film experience. The acting is captivating and realistic. I was moved by it. The film succeeds in telling this disturbing and tragic story without sentimentality or bias. It's terrific.