Hadewijch was a 13th century Christian mystic who’s writings made no distinctions whatsoever between God and love. In this latest film from the ever intense and challenging writer/director Bruno Dumont, a young theological student called Céline (Julie Sokolowski) adopts this name in the convent where she is living. However, when her unswerving and self-mortifying devotion to Jesus proves too much for the firm-but-empathic Mother Superior (Brigitte Mayeux-Clerget), she is asked to leave the monastery in order to try and find her way to Christ in the real world instead. The daughter of a government minister, whose home is a huge, gilded, and ornate apartment on the Île Saint-Louis, in the very heart of Paris, Céline finds herself at a loss, though. As a result, she ends up dividing her time between looking after the family pet and praying intensely.
However, things start to change when she meets Yassine (Yassine Salime). As an unemployed Muslim from a far-flung working-class suburb of Paris, he is from an entirely different universe to Céline. Even when her unwavering devotion to Christ means that she rejects any prospect of a sexual union with him, Yassine still doggedly pursues her. This brings Céline into contact with his brother Nassir (Karl Sarafidis) who is a strong adherent of Islam. Moreover, Nassir’s ability to comprehend and manipulate Céline’s susceptibility and fervour is to have a hugely significant affect on her, even though the detailed manner in which this improbable outcome is achieved is left to the audience to try and justify.
Told using both minimal dialogue and an utterly languorous plot development, the successful manner in which the frail and vulnerable-looking Ms. Sokolowski is able to portray this single-minded Christian zealot is paramount to how the film’s stretched credibility can still fascinate. Indeed, the decision of Mr. Dumont to show the significant amount of common ground that can lie between two ardent believers in faiths that have traditionally only displayed animosity towards each other is a highly provocative one. Even more so here, as it also acts as a way of easily eliminating any differences between the two characters based on either social inequality or cultural inheritance.
Indeed, if the intention is to fire some sort of warning shot across the bows of an increasingly non-secular and non-practising Western society, then the casual blurring of the lines between pious devotion and extremist activism leaves the film open to the charge that it is pandering to simplified and even vilifying characterisations. Equally, the minor sub-plot that involves intermittent near-silent shots of an enigmatic character played by David Dewaele is kept frustratingly opaque. On the other hand, there are two fine musical interludes during this superbly photographed film. These combine to provide some much-needed relief from the starched and uncompromising approach that Mr. Dumont otherwise takes to a work that looks to lay down an interesting challenge to its audiences as to its meaning.
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