Keswick Film Club - The Innocents

Synopsis

A future supernatural classic for you? We have always said we wont put on any film that has been shown by the Alhambra, but we thought this should be an exception. Shown by them as part of their Summer World Cinema Season, we think there was only one film club member who saw it, so, with apologies to him, we think this is one that you should all have a chance to see.

We start in "a pleasant, if featureless residential development in Romsås, Oslo, with 60s-style high-rise buildings near an artificial lake and picturesque woodland. Ida is a moody nine-year-old who resents her mum and dad paying so much attention to her elder sister Anna, who is autistic. As the long hot summer drags on, Ida is left to play outside, and tasked with looking after Anna. But Ida leaves her sister alone on the swings one day while she goes off with a new friend: a boy called Ben who shows her a strange mental trick he can do, making a bottle cap fly through the air without touching it.

Meanwhile, Anna strikes up a friendship with a girl called Aisha, who has telepathic powers to match Ben's telekinesis. Aisha starts silently communicating in her mind with Anna, who – to her parents' overjoyed astonishment – is now able to speak, thanks to her new friend. But these superpowers, revealed as calmly and frankly as if in some social-realist drama, become forces for evil..." Is this all a metaphor for something? "...perhaps this film's force comes from the fact that there is no other level to find in it. They simply have these supernatural abilities, it is something to do with their being children, and that is all there is to it. The final 'duel' scene, taking place in almost complete silence and under the nose of the notionally competent adults, is a masterpiece of sorts. ‘The Innocents’ is a nightmare unfolding in cold, clear daylight" – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian.

Don't miss your 2nd chance to see this one!