Sam Ashraf

The film’s very title is less a statement of fact, then, than an active provocation. The widespread, often automatic fetishization of children as these pure vessels of innocence and purity is placed under Vogt’s cinematic microscope with extraordinary effect. Disturbing, intelligent and held together by a young cast of jaw-droppingly talented actors, The Innocents is a hard film to shake, but at its core one drenched in a spirit of respect for children and their autonomy that is far too rare.