The Innocents (12A, 100 mins, ★★★★)
Set mainly in a Polish convent in 1945 and loosely based on a true story, The Innocents is austerely and beautifully shot by cinematographer Caroline Champetier (Of Gods and Men) in a palette dominated by black, white and grey. Morally, too, it is full of shadows: secrets and shame, profound trauma and the quiet struggle for survival.
The film begins with the mysterious sound of a woman howling from deep in the convent as the nuns are at prayer, a howl that triggers an unauthorised dash by a novice to find a doctor who is neither Polish nor Russian.
