Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #91. Anne Fontaine’s Agnus Dei

Published on January 6, 2016

Agnus Dei

Director: Anne Fontaine
Writers: Anne Fontaine, Pascal Bonitzer, Sabrina B. Karine, Alice Vial

French director Anne Fontaine, who has been making features since 1997’s Dry Cleaning, has certainly been jumping around between genres over her past several features, skipping from the romantic comedy of My Worst Nightmare (2013) to her tawdry English language debut Adrift (2013) and a modern twist on Flaubert’s eternal text with 2014’s Gemma Bovary. Her latest is a French-Polish co-production period piece set in 1945, where a nurse working for a branch of the Red Cross caring for French survivors of the German camps is convinced into following a sickly Polish nun to her convent after the woman begs for assistance. The nurse discovers a clutch of nuns all in advanced state of pregnancy.

Cast: Lou de Laage, Agata Buzek, Joanna Kulig, Vincent Macaigne, Agata Kulesza

Production Co./Producers: Mandarin Films’ Eric & Nicolas Altmayer (Yves Saint Laurent)

U.S. Distributor: Rights available. TBD (domestic), Films Distribution (International).

Release Date: Agnus Dei is scheduled as part of the Premieres Program at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival in January, 2016.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.