‘The Innocents’ (2021): Children Can Be So Cruel

Directed by: Eskil Vogt || Produced by: Maria Ekerhovd

Screenplay by: Eskil Vogt || Starring: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Morten Svartveit, Kadra Yusuf, Lisa Tønne

Music by: Pessi Levanto || Cinematography: Sturla Brandth Grovlen || Edited by: Jens Christian Fodstad || Country: Norway, Sweden, Finland || Language: Norwegian, Swedish

Running Time: 118 minutes

While adults are more adept at passive-aggressive, nuanced insults, most people tend to filter their worst impulses by the time they graduate high school (~18 years of age) and can be shamed for unwarranted attacks in many contexts. Children, on the other hand, often pack the most brutal, blunt vulgarity when they spot a target they perceive as different, vulnerable, and/or offensive to them in some way. I, for one, am grateful that many of my worst social encounters were “saved” for my young adulthood depression, where I was better able to compartmentalize them as a twenty-something person.

Many aren’t as lucky when growing up, and some experience childhood bullying on a consistent basis. Now, imagine childhood harassment with superpowered bullies and you have the premise to Eskil Vogt’s The Innocents (Norwegian = “De uskyldige”). A frequent collaborator of Joachim Trier’s (see their Oslo [2006, 2011, 2021] trilogy and Thelma [2017]) and, as of this writing, a two-time feature film director in his own right, Vogt trades the creepy kids of traditional “slow-burn” horror a la The Hole in the Ground (2019), Insidious (2011), Carrie (1976), Village of the Damned (1960), etc. for a dedicated meditation on the morality of youth. “With great power comes great responsibility,” as the saying goes, so how would great metaphysical powers be handled by those whom society considers far too young to shoulder much responsibility?

Antagonist Sam Ashraf (right) demonstrates his abilities to lead Rakel Lenora Fløttum (left).

The cinematic result of that meditation leads to one part coming-of-age drama, one part supernatural thriller, and one part quasi-superhero film (think the Stranger Things (2016-), Unbreakable (2000, 2016, 2019), Chronicle [2012], or Scanners [1981] variety). The Innocents is a blend of genres, but not spectacularly so a la Quentin Tarantino’s filmography or in an obnoxious way as in the The Lobster (2015) or Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022). The film incorporates multiple genre tones in subtle, organic ways as it transitions between acts, escalating narrative stakes the more its juvenile castmembers’ mysterious powers dominate the greater story. Top to bottom, the screenplay is a filmmaking clinic of not just tonal balance, but writing believable, multilayered child characters, who are then brought to life by a memorable cast thanks to some of the best child actor-direction I’ve seen.

The Innocents follows a family with two daughters (protagonist Rakel Lenora Fløttum and older diegetic sister Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), the firstborn of whom is a nonverbal autistic, who move to a new apartment complex on the outskirts of Oslo. After a brief introduction to our principal family, including Fløttum’s general irritation at being the de facto mentor to her special needs elder sister, the narrative then expands to encompass two neighboring households with only children Sam Ashraf and Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim. These four children develop an initial bond tied to their discovery of their similar yet different powers (only Fløttum lacks any metaphysical talents), but these relationships grow complicated when Ashraf demonstrates a significant lack of empathy for those he hurts with said abilities and becomes defensive when challenged.

In essence, the youth social dynamics depicted in The Innocents are comparable to any quality coming-of-age film, which by definition resemble dynamics of most real-life child relationships. The young cast act like regular people, just younger, more impressionable, and less behaviorally nuanced compared to the adults around them. The genre twist of telekinetic and psychedelic superpowers adds considerable danger and thus tension to these juvenile relationships where many other coming-of-age dramas would fizzle out by their third acts. 

On the cinematographic front, The Innocents sports one of the highest key (i.e. lowest contrast), most softly lit visual styles of any movie I’ve watched. The look of the film could almost be described as anti-film noir given its sheer absence of harsh shadows, overwhelming pastel colors, and predominance of daytime sequences set during the Nordic summer. Maybe this dovetails with the environments to which most younger children are restricted given nighttime curfews, limited free time during the colder schoolyear, and community parks friendly to families, so altogether the film looks as bright-eyed and bushytailed as its principal characters.

Top: Earlier in the film, our four main children socialize in healthy, if superpowered ways. Bottom: When disagreements between the bunch surface, those superpowers become as much of a curse as a blessing.

Aside from a somewhat overindulgent runtime (~118 minutes) for this type of story, The Innocents is an effective contemplation of childhood sentimentality, or the lack thereof, delivered within a nuanced yet not distracting hybridized genre package. I would recommend the film to most audiences of most ages (re: kids and adults) despite the dark subject-matter, as the film never becomes a gorefest nor does it contemplate unnecessary on-screen sexuality. Its supernatural thrills are dark yet relatable in a live-action Disney fairy tale sort of way, but with more genuine characters and finer balance of tone than the House of Mouse’s recent string of subpar remakes of its Renaissance Era classics. If nothing else, Eskil Vogt’s deconstruction of the blunt cruelty of children should make viewers thankful their childhood bullies were restricted by the laws of physics.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Dark, subtle, and most of all, mature, The Innocents melds several genres into a near seamless narrative that showcases the brutality of childhood without forcing moral judgments upon its audience. Its cinematography, lighting, and color-grading emphasize these themes.

—> However… writer-director Vogt could’ve tightened several sequences in the first and third acts to streamline this almost two-hour movie into a neat 100-minute story.

—> RECOMMENDED for your childhood triggers of post-traumatic stress disorder.

? How long do the summer days last that far north in Norway?