Hadewijch
Hadewijch
Named after a thirteenth-century mystic, Hadewijch presents the spiritual journey of Céline, a young novice nun who is expelled because of her overzealous faith, and sent back into the world by the mother superior ... She meets Yassine, an Arab boy who introduces her to the lights of Paris, and the cités. Céline’s passionate love of God, her rage, her unease with her haute-bourgeois parents, and her encounter with the volatile Yassine and more importantly his brother Nassir, a devout Muslim, leads her between grace and madness, further off along dangerous paths.
2.8 out of 5 based on 12 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Certificate |
12A |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Director |
Bruno Dumont |
| Cast |
Yassine Salime, Karl Sarafidis, David Dewaele Julie Sokolowski |
| Studio |
New Wave Films |
| Release Date |
February 2012 |
| Running Time |
105 mins |
| |
Named after a thirteenth-century mystic, Hadewijch presents the spiritual journey of Céline, a young novice nun who is expelled because of her overzealous faith, and sent back into the world by the mother superior ... She meets Yassine, an Arab boy who introduces her to the lights of Paris, and the cités. Céline’s passionate love of God, her rage, her unease with her haute-bourgeois parents, and her encounter with the volatile Yassine and more importantly his brother Nassir, a devout Muslim, leads her between grace and madness, further off along dangerous paths.
Reviews
The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“Genuinely mysterious and unsettling, with a batsqueak of dreamlike strangeness in the realist setting. ”
16/02/2012
Read Full Review
Total Film
Tom Dawson
“Dumont continues to plough his own furrow with this provocative look at contemporary religious martyrdom.”
06/02/2012
Read Full Review
The Times
Wendy Ide
“An austere and beautiful exploration of the conflicts inherent in religious faith. ”
17/02/2012
Read Full Review
The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“Whatever else he is – avant-gardiste, provocateur, largely unknown – Bruno Dumont is a wonderful observer of the human face.”
17/02/2012
Read Full Review
Empire Magazine
David Parkinson
“Even though the central conceit seems flawed, there is no denying the power of this comparison of Christian and Islamic concepts of love.”
13/02/2012
Read Full Review
The Evening Standard
Charlotte O'Sullivan
“Get thee to a convent, Bruno. You're not ready for the real world.”
17/02/2012
Read Full Review
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
“This cosmic view of humanity is so harsh and penetrating that it allows for little if any humor. And viewers who are not on Mr. Dumont’s wavelength tend to dismiss his work as pretentious, glum and boring. Those who follow him, however, will find themselves in the rarefied territory of Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson and Carl Dreyer.”
23/12/2011
Read Full Review
The Observer
Philip French
“As stiff as an over-starched wimple and rather tedious, but like earlier films of his it has something that sticks in the mind like the hook in a fish's mouth.”
19/02/2012
Read Full Review
The Daily Telegraph
David Gritten
“Mostly Frustrating”
17/02/2012
Read Full Review
Time Out
Wally Hammond
“The girl ... is played by non-professional actress Julie Sokolowski who, with her eyes raised, can repeat the feat made famous by the silent actress Falconetti of making spiritual anguish look uncannily identical to sexual ecstasy.”
14/02/2012
Read Full Review
The New Yorker
Richard Brody
“Dumont suppresses any information that could bring any of his stick-figure characters to life; he seems to be offering lessons about fanaticism, wealth, power, poverty, and politics, but is merely drawing connections by numbers.”
17/02/2012
Read Full Review
The Sunday Times
Edward Porter
“Dumont makes things even more mysterious by withholding significant facts. Arguments could be made in defence of this strategy, but I suspect they would be dry and laborious. They certainly wouldn’t improve the experience of watching this pretentious film.”
19/02/2012
Read Full Review