THE INNOCENTS FOCUSES ON THE GUILTY
During the end of 1945, the French Red Cross was sent to Poland to assist in healing the wounds of war for French soldiers who were prisoners of war in German camps. Civilians were supposed to rely on the overburdened Polish Red Cross. However, Russian soldiers raped many Polish women, including nuns in a convent. Desperate for medical attention, one of the nuns sneaks out of the convent to the French Red Cross and persuades intern Madeleine Pauliac aka Mathilde Beaulieu in the film (Lou de Laâge) to help. Repeated visits occur, one with her colleague Samuel (Vincent Macaigne), as the nuns give birth despite a reprimand for going AWOL from French Red Cross duties from the colonel in charge (Pascal Elso). The new mothers are assured that their babies are to be adopted by townspeople, with Mother Superior (Agata Kulesz) responsible for placement yet mindful that the convent would be closed if word of the rapes and births reached Soviet authorities, which had taken control of the country. But if that were the story, director Anne Fontaine would not build up to the main secret of the film for which the Political Film Society has nominated The Innocents as best film exposé and best film on human rights of 2016. MH