Starring: Lou de Laâge, Agata Buzek, Agata Kulesza
Director: Anne Fontaine
Running time: 111 mins
Certificate: 15
UK Release date: November 11th 2016

Well that’s the film of the year sorted then. This tale, concerning the end of WWII set in a Polish nunnery, is so flawless in its execution and so beautifully written and played it’s a struggle to find anything other than praise to describe it. Perhaps the translation of the nun’s description of the nights the nunnery was invaded by soldiers as “nightmare” from the French “L’horreur” doesn’t quite do that word justice, and perhaps the heroine is a touch too perfect – she’s a surgeon who looks like a model, saves lives, likes a brandy and a fag and can drive a truck. Apart from that, sit back and let the most extraordinarily moving story unfold in front of your eyes.

Lou de Laâge is Mathilde, an apprentice surgeon working for the French Red Cross in Poland in December 1945, patching up soldiers before they can go home. She is determined, capable and liked by chief surgeon Samuel, a Jew with whom she has the odd flirt with – they are French, after all. [Read more…]