This piercing drama by Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel), a French-Polish production and shot entirely in Poland, is set in a convent in a ravaged Poland at the end of WWII and based on a haunting true story.
Mathilda (Lou de Laâge), a young French doctor working for the Red Cross is sent to help concentration camp survivors outside Warsaw. Visiting a nearby convent, she makes a disquieting discovery: several nuns wihtin the convent are in advanced states of pregnancy, after systematic rape by Soviet soldiers during the war that has left them traumatised and questioning their faith.
Begged by the nuns to help them with their respective pregnancies, Matilde does so – all the while hiding this new commitment from her lover and boss (Vincent Macaigne).
Provoking immediate comparisons to Pawel Pawlikowski’s Oscar-winning Ida, with its convent setting and questions of faith against an exploration of Poland’s tragic war history, and – not least – because of the presence of Ida actress Agata Kulesza, Fontaine’s film completely transcends this, telling an important story that is singularly compelling, immensely moving, and full of grace.