Innocence

A girls' school inside a forest, surrounded by high walls. New pupils are delivered there in coffins. The girls wear coloured ribbons according to age and move up a colour each year. Their days go in dance lessons, biology lessons and running in the woods. Going outside is forbidden; only the eldest go somewhere in the evenings that is never explained. There are two teachers and no other adults. Iris is the new girl, and she asks questions. Lucile Hadžihalilović directs. The source is a text by Frank Wedekind. Marion Cotillard and Hélène de Fougerolles are in the cast. The film explains nothing. What the school is, where the girls come from and what happens when they leave are not said; the narrative does not build these as a mystery either, it simply leaves the question open. The subject is growing up being administered by a system. The girls are given limited information about their bodies and their futures, and the rules are enforced without being explained. The sound design is its strongest side: water, insects, footsteps and a train in the distance. The visual language is slow and distant; the adult gaze is deliberately kept outside. It is the director's first feature and she kept the same method in her later films. Who it is for: viewers who like atmosphere driven cinema and narratives that explain nothing. Who it is not for: nothing happens, the pace is very slow, and the subject is uncomfortable in how it is handled.