Innocence

Innocence is a 2004 avant-garde coming-of-age psychological drama film written and directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović, inspired by the 1903 novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls by Frank Wedekind, and starring Marion Cotillard. The film follows a year in the life of the girls in the third dormitory at a secluded boarding school, where new students arrive in coffins. Plot After a series of images of rushing water, forest, and dark, empty subterranean hallways, six-year-old Iris arrives inside a coffin placed in a dormitory's common area, where she is met with general warmth and curiosity by the other six girls who live in the house. After dressing her in a uniform matching theirs and brushing and braiding her hair, the girls all exchange hair ribbons: each girl gets the ribbons passed down from the girl a year above her, and the colour marks their age and year in the school. Iris, the new youngest "red ribbon", unfortunately excites the ire of seven-year-old Selma, the former red ribbon and now orange ribbon, who complains about the absence of the former violet-ribbon Natashka—the oldest who had been her friend. The new violet ribbon, twelve-year-old Bianca, takes Iris under her wing. At first Iris is homesick, and wants to be reunited with her brother, but Bianca matter-of-factly tells her there is no possibility of that: there are no boys allowed in the school. All of the girls in the school go swimming in the lake, and Iris quickly befriends Laura, the red-ribbon of another house. That night, much to Iris's dismay, Bianca leaves on an authorized mysterious errand that she cannot discuss. The next day, Iris has a routine day at the school – dance lessons, classroom time with animals, and recreation. The classes at the school are run by two pretty young women: Mademoiselle Edith, who walks with a cane and teaches lessons, and Mademoiselle Eva, who teaches dance. Each house is cared for by an elderly serving woman; the girls whisper that all of the employees are girls who tried to escape the walled school in their youth, and were pressed into permanent service as punishment. One night, Iris follows Bianca on her secret errand, but she loses track of the older girl once she reaches the main building. She explores, but only stumbles across more she does not understand: a shadowy man preparing an injection for a shadowy girl (possibly Bianca.) She flees, and is lost in the woods for the night.