The Innocents (De uskyldige)

This film that crawls under the skin and into the mind, as it strips away and digs into childhood, balancing the kindness and cruelty that children are capable of, consciously or not.

Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) and her autistic older sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad) have moved to a new home, in a large estate somewhere in Norway, and are settling in.

Ida appears to have a sociopathic attitude towards Anna’s condition. With barely a hint of emotion, she pinches Anna’s arm to get a response. Later on she tortures Anna by putting broken glass in her shoe which is obviously causing her pain and distress, as it does the viewer.

As Ida explores her new surroundings she befriends Ben (Sam Ashraf) who demonstrates a remarkable mental ability: he can deflect a dropping stone from its trajectory in another direction. Ida tries too but nothing happens, the stone just drops to the ground.
Feeling the need to experiment further they find Aisha’s (who also possess power) (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) cat and drop the poor animal down a stair well, a trauma which it barely survives.

Putting that aside and forced to take Anna with her, Ida introduces her to the others and a wary friendship develops as their mental powers grow stronger. Especially between Anna and Aisha. There appears to be an awakening as Anna becomes more cognitive and actually speaks. Ben however, the victim of abuse and a broken home, is on a far darker path and slowly his and the others powers begin to manifest and collide.

A profoundly disturbing film from Norwegian writer and director Eskil Vogt with some scenes that will have even the most hardened watcher squirming. The Innocents approaches life from the children’s’ perspectives (adults don’t get much of a look in). The charming curiosity and stimulations of that age juxtaposed with their innate capacity for selfishness and destruction with little or no sympathy.

Ida initially frustrated by her sister begins to see something more in her as Aisha’s gentle psychic suggestions open up Anna to her sister and family. Conversely the resentful Ben laces his power with cruelty and revenge. How much this can be attributed to a terrible home life is hard to quantify as the character develops enough for us to feel that this viciousness is a deep-seated character flaw, regardless of surroundings.

The film looks astonishing with the camera flowing around the sterility of the glass buildings, but also taking in the bright sunshine and woodlands close by, suggesting an urban idyll, at first. But this is no more than superficial gloss once the camera descends into the complex and observes the everyday lives of the inhabitants.

The young actors are remarkable as their characters change with the circumstances. Its invidious to pick one out but Ashraf is particularly complex playing a not terribly likeable person from the start, though possibly eliciting some sympathy because of his circumstances.

The Innocents will be in cinemas and on digital from 20 May