Four Norwegian children discover they have paranormal powers but The Innocents has nothing to do with an American superhero movie. It’s one of the most disturbing films of recent months. No wonder he was rewarded at the Etrange Festival, then at the Gérardmer Festival.
“I was inspired by my own childhood, specifies the director Eskil Vogt with 20 minutes. I remember staying for a very long time staring at a glass, hoping to make it move by my mental power without, of course, succeeding. The young protagonists of this cruel tale don’t just move dishes. Their experiments quickly become very dangerous.
A lonely child but not a monster
“When you are a child, you are powerless because you do not decide anything yourself: you obey your parents and other adults, insists the director. One dreams of imposing one’s will on the world and this remains a fantasy for quite a long time. »
Screenwriter for Joaquim Trier since 2001 until recently Julie in 12 chapters and director of Blind (2014), Eskil Vogt knows how to raise the tension around kids left to fend for themselves in a city emptied of its inhabitants in the heart of summer. “The families of the heroes couldn’t go on vacation,” he said. This social aspect is important in the script, but the gender and ethnicity of the characters were not decided until the casting, according to the young performers I met. »
A boy of Pakistani origin is very scary by terrorizing three girls, including a young autistic girl. “Sam Ashraf was ideal for the role of which he grasped all the complexity, remembers Eskil Vogt. For me, he does not represent absolute evil but a lonely and unhappy boy. I don’t see him as a monster, even if he commits inexcusable acts. »
A childish nightmare
The director makes no concessions to plunge the viewer into a world of childish nightmares that are as fascinating as they are traumatic. We think of Village of the Damned in front of this sober, almost minimalist film, which its realism makes chilling. “Children like to experiment without always understanding the consequences of their actions. They are born without moral codes and can behave like sociopaths”, insists the filmmaker.
The Innocentswith the ironic title, makes a chilling demonstration of it, leaving the public in a state of amazement, constituting a solid criterion for identifying an excellent film.