Hadewijch

Hadewijch, a gripping and stimulating film drama directed and written by Bruno Dumont, is a profound exploration of faith, fanaticism, love, and the tenuous line that exists between them. The film was released in 2009 starring Julie Sokolowski as Celine/Hadewijch, Karl Sarafidis as Nassir, and Yassine Salime as Yassine. The film title Hadewijch is drawn from a 13th-century woman poet who was among the first to write in the vernacular, and her fervent love for God was often likened to the romantic or sexual passion.

In Dumont's Hadewijch, we are introduced to Celine (Julie Sokolowski), a Parisian girl studying in a convent under the adept guidance of nuns. From the very beginning, it is clear that Celine's faith is extremely intense. She possesses an extreme level of devotion to Christ to the point that her superiors worry that she's taking her spiritual quest to dangerous extremes - starving herself in the name of fasting, refusing any sort of personal comfort or pleasure, deliberately seeking suffering as a way of being closer to her savior.

Recognizing the danger in her unswerving obsession, the mother superior asks Celine to leave the convent, go back home, rejoin the world, and explore life outside to find her faith in real situations. The mother stresses that God does not live in extremes, encouraging Celine to discover her faith in the nuances of everyday life.

Once home in an opulent Paris apartment with her secular, intellectual parents, Celine adopts the name Hadewijch – inspired by the medieval mystic - and ventures into her journey of self-discovery. She meets Yassine (Yassine Salime), an Arabic young man in a café and, slowly, they become friends. He offers her a connection to the 'real world', often challenging her rigid and simplistic religious perspective.

Yassine, not particularly religious himself, introduces Celine/Hadewijch to his older brother, Nassir (Karl Sarafidis), who is a devout Muslim contemplating an extremist path. Nassir's fervent belief resonates with Celine, stirring a mutual interest in the crossover points between Christian and Islamic expressions of faith.

The journey of Hadewijch instigates contemplation about the nature of faith, the challenge of orthodoxy when confronted with the mundane, and the danger of fanaticism. Sokolowski's intense and moving portrayal of Celine/Hadewijch offers an empathetic viewpoint into the world of religious zeal and intellectual faith crisis. Dumont's storytelling complements this compelling journey by adding profound layers of societal and religious clash further challenging our understanding of faith and conviction.

Her interaction with Yassine and Nassir provides a fresh contrasting perspective to Celine's strictly Christian upbringing. The inclusion of the secular and the religiously fanatical views of Islam foregrounds the heavy themes of interfaith dialogue, tensions, and parallels, revealing the beautiful yet often blurred and dangerous boundaries of profound faith and potential extremism.

All this is set against the beautiful backdrop of the French countryside and the bustling Parisian city. Dumont employs long, contemplative shots, full of natural sound, to contrast the solitude of the countryside with the urban cacophony, further deepening the divide between Celine's inner turmoil and earthly reality.

Hadewijch, per its exploration, operates on two planes. On the literal, it showcases the story of a young woman torn between her exacting devotion to God and the necessity of living in and accepting the 'ordinary' world. On the symbolic, the film offers itself as a dialogue on fanaticism and faith, with Celine representing Christian fervor, and Nassir representing extreme Islam.

Hadewijch is a beautifully thought-provoking film about profound faith and fanaticism, questioned love, and the pursuit of spirit in the earthly life. At times contemplative, at times troubling, the film's strength lies in its refusal to simplify or judge, challenging us instead to wrestle with the conundrums it presents. It underscores the human capability to be fervently immersed in faith and the consequential depth of imbalance that can lead to extremism.

Equipped with a breathtaking performance by Julie Sokolowski and Bruno Dumont's thoughtful narrative direction, the story of Hadewijch becomes a potent exploration that becomes, as much a spiritual journey for the audience, as it is for its protagonist. An unusually engaging movie that stirs mass introspection about the path of faith and the dangers of religious extremes, 'Hadewijch' is a gripping, singular cinematic experience, an invitation to consider and perhaps reconsider one's own faith.