The Innocents (2021 film)

2021 film by Eskil Vogt

The Innocents

Film poster

Norwegian| De uskyldige
Directed by| Eskil Vogt
Written by| Eskil Vogt
Produced by| Maria Ekerhovd
Starring|

* Rakel Lenora Fløttum
* Alva Brynsmo Ramstad
* Sam Ashraf
* Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim
* Ellen Dorrit Petersen
* Morten Svartveit
* Kadra Yusuf
* Lisa Tønne

Cinematography| Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Edited by| Jens Christian Fodstad
Music by| Pessi Levanto

Production
companies

* Zentropa Sweden
* Film i Väst
* Snowglobe
* Svenska Filminstitutet
* Norsk Filminstitutt
* Eurimages
* Protagonist Pictures
* YLE

Distributed by| IFC Midnight (United States)

Release dates

* 11 July 2021 (2021-07-11) (Cannes)
* 27 August 2021 (2021-08-27) (Norway)

Running time

| 118 minutes[1]
Countries| Norway
Sweden
Finland
Languages| Norwegian
Swedish
Budget|

* €3,028,000[2]
* (est. $3.2 million)
* NOK29 million[3]
* ($3.4 million)[3]

Box office| $236,419[4]

The Innocents (Norwegian: De uskyldige) is a 2021 supernatural horror film written and directed by Eskil Vogt.[5] The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 74th Cannes Film Festival on 11 July 2021.

## Plot

[edit]

Lonely young girl Ida and her older sister Anna have moved into an apartment with their parents. Anna has nonverbal autism, with Ida having to take responsibility for her. One day Ida meets Ben and the two strike up a friendship. Ben shows Ida that he is able to move small, light-weight objects with telekinesis.

Ida is asked to bring Anna to the playground and leaves her there to go off and play with Ben. They play football until a bully takes the ball. Ben picks up a cat he has seen in the woods and the two drop it from the top of the apartment complex's stairs. They find the cat alive but Ben kills it by crushing its skull with his foot after Ida tells him not to. When Ida leaves to find Anna she is not on the tire swing where Ida left her. Ida discovers Anna playing with Aisha, another child from the apartment complex. Aisha demonstrates that she is able to communicate with Anna through telepathy. It is later revealed that Anna can move objects with telekenesis but Ida discovers that the powers are strongest when Anna, Aisha, and Ben are together - and that Ida is the only child of the group without supernatural powers.

The children practice their powers and strengthen them and Anna begins to speak words verbally with Aisha's support. While sending mental messages, Ben becomes angry at the message "Ben is a turd" and Aisha's subsequent laughter. He knocks Aisha over telekinetically and Anna intervenes. In the mental battle, a nearby log explodes and Anna is injured by a piece of wood lodged in her leg. At home, Ben is scolded by his mother, who has been abusing him, and he knocks her out with a pan using his powers. She later wakes up and tells him to call for help. In a later scene, her body remains in the kitchen with her face covered with a towel. Meanwhile, Anna begins to be able to speak at home, to the immense joy of her parents.

Using his powers, Ben is able to "fetch" other people and influence them to do what he wants. While in a trance he directs a neighbor to kill his bully. After telling Ida of this power while playing in the woods, she encourages him to prove it by controlling her. He does so by making her climb onto a fridge; when the spell is broken, she says that she saw a snake which in reality was a tree branch. Ben says he only wanted her to climb onto the fridge - so seeing the snake is an image Ida's mind created. He shows Ida he can snap the large twig - and later snaps the leg of a child on the playground. Aisha is drawn outside by this and tells Ben to stop. He throws a rock at her using his powers and then attacks her by seemingly forcing her throat to close up. Ida physically pushes Ben over and the spell is broken. He turns to Ida menacingly, but runs away when Anna comes towards them over the hill. Ben runs home and sobs in his empty apartment. Anna and Aisha resolve to stop Ben because they know that he will hurt them. But that night Anna and Ida are not allowed to leave the apartment, and Ben uses his powers to influence Aisha's mother to kill her with a knife. Anna loses the ability to speak in the wake of her friend Aisha's death.

A stranger follows Ida, Anna, and their father, suggesting Ben is using him to try and kill them. The stranger tries to enter the apartment complex after them, but is locked out. Later, Ida invites Ben out to play with a toy glider and they agree to go to a higher spot in order to launch it. At the highway overpass where the bully was killed, Ben climbs up to throw the glider and Ida moves forward to push him over. A woman on a bicycle yells at Ben to get down, but Ida pushes him over the wall. Ben falls onto a grassy area next to the road and appears to be in a trance. Ida runs off, but realizes she is under Ben's control when her surroundings become dark and she sees the snake again. She runs into the road and breaks her leg when she is hit by a car; Ben simultaneously wakes up screaming.

Back home, Ida is fearful Ben will use her mother in retaliation, so locks herself in the bathroom. Her mother leaves the apartment to go to the store. When Ida leaves the bathroom, Anna is also gone. Anna has gone outside, where she and Ben face each other across a large pond. They affect their surroundings with telekinesis and Ben overpowers Anna, causing her to fall down. Ida loses her crutch trying to get down the stairs. She screams out and explodes her cast, healing her leg and discovering she also has telekinesis. The battle between Anna and Ben intensifies - babies cry, dogs bark, waves form. Ida joins Anna while some of the nearby children begin to watch from the playground and apartment balconies. Anna and Ida hold hands and Ben becomes visibly weak. A metal swing set buckles and Ben sits into the tire swing. Eventually there is a big burst of energy which causes things nearby to fall over; at the same time, Ben is killed by the burst and his body goes limp in the swing. The children who were watching go back to their games and homes.

Ida and Anna go back to the apartment and sit in silence. Their mother returns and Ida gives her a big hug, while Anna plays with her scribble-board. Anna then pauses, as if she is about to write something - suggesting she may regain the ability to communicate with Ida.

## Cast

[edit]

* Rakel Lenora Fløttum as Ida
* Alva Brynsmo Ramstad as Anna
* Sam Ashraf as Ben
* Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim as Aisha
* Ellen Dorrit Petersen as Henriette
* Morten Svartveit [no] as Ida and Anna's father
* Kadra Yusuf as Aishas' mother
* Lisa Tønne as Ben's mother

## Release

[edit]

The Innocents had its world premiere at the 74th Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard section, on 11 July 2021.[6][7][8] It later screened at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, in September 2021.[8][9] Earlier that same month, the film's U.S. distribution rights were acquired by IFC Midnight,[8] and it had a limited release on 13 May 2022.[10] It was released on VOD by RLJ Entertainment on 18 October 2022.[10]

## Reception

[edit]

### Box office

[edit]

The Innocents grossed $25,705 in the United States and Canada,[10] and $206,366 in other territories for a worldwide total of $232,071,[4] against a production budget of 3.2-3.4 million.[2][3]

### Critical response

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 112 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Innocents chillingly subverts the purity of youth in a powerfully acted thriller that lingers long after the credits roll."[11] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[12]

Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter called the film "low-tech, high-tension", writing that "The lonely, uncanny and sometimes unthinkingly violent world of childhood is explored with chilling candor and exceptional skill".[13] Jessica Kiang of Variety praised the performances of the child actors as well as the film's atmosphere, calling the film "both a satisfying genre exercise and a minute observation of the process by which young children acquire morality."[14] Sight & Sound's Anton Bitel wrote that the film "uses its genre frame to show the connectedness, curiosity and cruelty of its young characters, and also asks whether the inevitable loss of innocence at this age is a slate that can ever simply be cleaned."[15]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "The Innocents (2022)". Irish Film Classification Office. Archived from the original on 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
2. ^ a b "Suomen elokuvasäätiö: Etusivu" (search The Innocents in the "Haku" tab and click on the film still) (in Finnish). Finnish Film Foundation. Archived from the original on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
3. ^ a b c Mitchell, Wendy (7 February 2019). "Norwegian Film Institute backs new Eskil Vogt, Andre Øvredal films (exclusive)". screendaily.com. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
4. ^ a b "The Innocents (2021)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
5. ^ Ritman, Alex (3 March 2021). "Berlin Hidden Gem: Norwegian Supernatural Thriller 'The Innocents' Asks if Children Can Be Genuinely Evil". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 4 June 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
6. ^ "The Innocents as seen by Eskil Vogt - Festival de Cannes". festival-cannes.com. 11 July 2021. Archived from the original on 20 January 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
7. ^ Sharf, Zack (10 June 2021). "Cannes Film Festival 2021 Lineup: Sean Baker, Wes Anderson, and More Compete for Palme d'Or". IndieWire. Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
8. ^ a b c Wiseman, Andreas (9 September 2021). "IFC Scoops Up Cannes & Fantastic Fest Supernatural Drama 'The Innocents'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
9. ^ Weinstein, Max (23 March 2022). "The Best Horror Festivals in the World 2022". Dread Central. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
10. ^ a b c "De uskyldige (2022) – Financial Information". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
11. ^ "The Innocents". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
12. ^ "The Innocents". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
13. ^ Felperin, Leslie (12 July 2021). "'The Innocents': Film Review | Cannes 2021". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
14. ^ Kiang, Jessica (11 July 2021). "'The Innocents' Review: Beautifully Creepy Fable About Kids With Powers". Variety. Archived from the original on 29 March 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.
15. ^ Bitel, Anton (6 December 2021). "Halloween FrightFest 2021 round-up". BFI.org.uk. Archived from the original on 22 April 2022. Retrieved 29 March 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* The Innocents at IMDb
* The Innocents at AllMovie

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Eskil Vogt

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