The Innocents - Barney's Incorrect Five Second Reviews

A French and Polish film set in a convent in liberated 1945 Poland. Countries liberated by the Red Army found themselves with a bunch of unwanted pregnancies resulting from gross and rampant sexual assault by undisciplined soldiers. You can imagine the unique situation of a convent finding itself with a bunch of pregnant nuns and how they would have to deal with that. 

Soliciting the help of an atheist medical professional, Mathilde, the brave nuns try to balance their shame with their faith.

Look, it's not an easy movie. Mathilde's lover and colleague provide some much-needed comedic relief but this is some heavy-duty drama. How do you treat celibate women who aren't supposed to be pregnant? What do you do with the babies?

And of course you can't make a movie that talks about rape without having a believable and terrifying sexual assault scene.  That being said, the movie has some beautiful moments and the ending is well worth it. The acting is top shelf and I was very reluctant to see this because the dubbed trailer was horrible. Make sure to see this in the original language with subtitles. Far better. 

Heart rating: 4.5 stars (fantastic stuff)

Brain rating: 4 stars