Pauline Etienne's devastating performance dominates this adaptation of Denis Diderot's scathing attack on institutionalised religion 'La Religieuse', in which a young woman, Suzanne Simonin, whose family are unable to afford her dowry, place her in a convent. Suzanne is initially looked after by a benevolent mother superior, but following her death the young novice finds herself subject to the whims of the sadistic Supérieure Christine (Louise Bourgoin). Guillaume Nicloux skilfully conveys the claustrophobia of this suffocating world.