Described as nun exploitation film of the 1970's, this film is far beyond such a description. Vastly underrated, this film is Intelligent, though gory. It is both a complex feminist tract and a radical anti-war film.
Flavia is a beautiful and intelligent 14th century young lady forced to live the life of an obedient nun in a strict convent by her father. Flavia questions the oppressive and inferior position of women, not just in the church, but in scriptures and the world at large. She witnesses and endures many things, including the rape of a poor local woman, a young stallion having his testicles removed, and a nun tortured to death by the so-called church fathers.
For sister Flavia, male-dominated Christian society is brutal and the position of women is either to be an obedient child-bearing wife, prostitute, or celibate nun. In a scene difficult to forget, she goes so far as to question a statute of Jesus why it is that the father, son, and holy ghost are all male? The Muslims come to invade the coast and in another great scene the old nun Agatha asks the women in the town why they are running? After all, the Muslims can't do anything more to them the Christian men already have. Trapped by a male-dominated cruel Christian world, in the Muslims she hopes to find saviors; but hoping and reality are not the same. There is no escape. Nor is there fulfillment in revenge as seen in some of the most disturbing and gory scenes in the film. Is the solution in acquiring justice and ending female oppression based based upon male violence and becoming like the brutish men that enslave them? Not for the faint at heart.
Flavia is a beautiful and intelligent 14th century young lady forced to live the life of an obedient nun in a strict convent by her father. Flavia questions the oppressive and inferior position of women, not just in the church, but in scriptures and the world at large. She witnesses and endures many things, including the rape of a poor local woman, a young stallion having his testicles removed, and a nun tortured to death by the so-called church fathers.
For sister Flavia, male-dominated Christian society is brutal and the position of women is either to be an obedient child-bearing wife, prostitute, or celibate nun. In a scene difficult to forget, she goes so far as to question a statute of Jesus why it is that the father, son, and holy ghost are all male? The Muslims come to invade the coast and in another great scene the old nun Agatha asks the women in the town why they are running? After all, the Muslims can't do anything more to them the Christian men already have. Trapped by a male-dominated cruel Christian world, in the Muslims she hopes to find saviors; but hoping and reality are not the same. There is no escape. Nor is there fulfillment in revenge as seen in some of the most disturbing and gory scenes in the film. Is the solution in acquiring justice and ending female oppression based based upon male violence and becoming like the brutish men that enslave them? Not for the faint at heart.