BENEDETTA

BENEDETTA treats the convent as holy ground, political theatre, and a very unsafe workplace. Set in 17th-century Italy, the film follows Benedetta Carlini, a young nun whose visions of Christ turn her into a figure of fascination, suspicion, and power inside her convent. When Bartolomea, a novice fleeing abuse, enters the community, Benedetta’s spiritual authority becomes tangled with desire, ambition, fear, and institutional control.

Verhoeven adapts the historical case with his usual refusal to behave politely. The film moves between religious drama, political satire, erotic provocation, and plague-era power struggle. It treats the convent as a closed system where every vision, confession, illness, and rumour can be used as evidence, weapon, or currency. God may be watching, but so is everyone else.

Virginie Efira gives Benedetta a difficult magnetism. She’s sincere, manipulative, vulnerable, strategic, and never simple enough to be dismissed. Charlotte Rampling, as the abbess, brings a colder intelligence to the film, grounding its excess in calculation and institutional survival.

BENEDETTA is funny, blasphemous, intelligent, and deeply Verhoeven. Naturally, it upset exactly the sort of people you’d expect it to upset.

Please note: this film contains sexual content, provocation, and adult themes. Viewer discretion is advised. All ticket holders must be aged 21 years or older.