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Innocence film image; group of girls collected around another girl lying in bed

Innocence

A coffin arrives at an elite school for young girls deep in the woods. Within it, Iris (Zoe Auclair) is very much alive. The other girls take her in and explain the rules. Most of their studies revolve around the natural sciences and dance. She will learn that obedience is the key to her happiness. And perhaps she will come to appreciate the truth in this… ?

Lucile Hadžihalilović’s first feature is a suggestive, subversive fairy tale, the kind of film David Lynch might have made, if he’d been born a French woman in the early 1960s.

Innocence is full of charm and strangeness — and a sense that childhood is a place of incredible terrors and fleeting joys, of rapt innocence and fatal experience.

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

Innocence is not merely the year’s best first film, but one of the great statements on the politics of being ’tween.

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice (2005)

Director

Lucile Hadžihalilović

Cast

Zoe Auclair, Berangere Haubruge, Lea Bridarolli, Marion Cotillard, Helene de Fougerolles

Credits
Country of Origin

France

Year

2004

Language

In French with English subtitles

19+
115 min

Book Tickets

Friday January 02

3:00 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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Saturday January 03

7:00 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Sunday January 04

5:30 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Monday January 05

1:30 pm
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Credits

Screenwriter

Lucile Hadzihalilovic

Cinematography

Benoît Debie

Editor

Adam Finch

Original Music

Richard Cooke

Production Design

Arnaud de Moleron

Art Director

Pierre du Boisberranger

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