Hadewijch

Directed by Bruno Dumont. Starring Julie Sokolowski, Yassine Salime, Karl Sarafidis, Brigitte Mayeux-Clerget, David Dewaele Club, IFI, Dublin, 105 min

HADEWIJCH (Julie Sokolowski) is a young 21st-century novice sister named for a 13th-century virgin mystic. She has embarked on a fanatical regime of fasting and freezing when the Mother Superior (Brigitte Mayeux- Clerget) takes her aside. In light of the trainee nun’s “self-love” and blind faith she will not be permitted to take her vows or remain at the convent. “You are a caricature of a nun,” scolds the elder anchorite.

Devastated, Hadewijch returns to Paris and her old secular life as Céline, the privileged daughter of a “jerk” diplomat. The girl soon finds some solace in the company of Yassine (Yassine Salime), a young Arab ne’er-do- ell who lives with his older brother, Nassir (Karl Sarafidis) on the less salubrious side of town. Then, because this is a Bruno Dumont flick, our heroine finds herself in a political cell in the Middle East before returning to France, where a crucible of faith awaits.

What do international distributors have against Dumont? Detractors would have it that the director, one of the best curveball auteurs on the block, is simply too glum and severe for most arthouse tastes. But if that's true, why did Humanity, his most discombobulating film, a forensic drama about a raped and murdered 11-year-old, find an audience in this territory in 1999?

Why, too, were we left watching Michael Winterbottom's epic fail Nine Songswhen Dumont's 2003 naturalistic sex drama Twentynine Palmswent unreleased? Even Dumont's Flanders, a 2006 Grand Prix winner at Cannes, was mostly relegated to the festival circuit.

Thus Hadewijch, Dumont's strange, compelling mediation on penitence and fundamentalism, pops up on our schedules almost three years after the film won the International Film Critics' award at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. Well, better late than never.

Chilly like a church and mad as a cult, Hadewijchechoes back its pet preoccupation as reverence and gaudy plot turns. It's secularism from the film nation that brought you Of Gods and Menand Lourdes. Sokolowski's central turn and Yves Cape's cinematography add a beatific glow to a fascinating piece of cinema.