The Innocents (2016)

"You’ve never seen a World War II film like this before. Based on actual post-war events, The Innocents follows a Polish convent housing several pregnant nuns – victims of an “indescribable nightmare” – who are due to give birth. They cannot turn to a local doctor, for the nuns would be evicted and disgraced. They cannot turn to a Russian doctor, since their soldiers caused this unspeakable horror. Their only hope – aside from God – is a French Red Cross doctor who must keep their secret."

"Hope and horror are commingled to quietly moving effect in The Innocents, a restrained but cumulatively powerful French-Polish drama about the various crises of faith that emerge when a house of God is ravaged by war."

"Echoes of Ida and Of Gods and Men sound in its stark, unsparing theme of war battling with belief, despite the odd hopeful plot twist."

"An emotionally involving rather than harrowing film, with scenes as beautiful as oil paintings."

""The Innocents" weaves several narrative strands into a complex of themes that sometimes pull against one another."

"It pales in comparison with, say, Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida. Yet it is fervently and strongly performed."

"Through the events of the story, values are questioned, authority challenged and the whole system forced to reshape itself."

"A sensitive, snow-laden fable which captivates until its final frames."

""The Innocents" soars above its seeming contradictions."

"What thus remains is a film that looks painterly and features solid performances but which lacks a key that would unlock the emotional, spiritual and ideological mysteries that hide behind this unfocused retelling of the facts."

"Played with restraint and individuality by a fine ensemble, this is a moving but provocative study of belief, duty, compassion and acceptance."