A subdued but potent glimpse of female suffering in the aftermath of war, this film by Anne Fontaine evokes both Ida and Of Gods and Men in its treatment of faith under siege. The mesmerising Lou de Laâge plays Mathilde, a young French Red Cross worker in Poland in 1945, who is approached by a desperate novice nun for help. Inside the walls of the convent, she discovers a terrified woman giving birth. It soon becomes clear that she is a nun, and several of the other sisters are also in the same condition after repeated attacks by Russian soldiers. It’s a striking, sober film – the restrained use of music contrasts the exquisite devotional song of the sisters with the ugliness of their situation; the black and white of the habits is echoed in the stark winter landscape outside the convent walls. However, this is a film that would really have benefited from the texture and depth of being shot not digitally, but on film.
