Mouchette

Robert Bresson plumbs great reservoirs of feeling in what might be one of the most searing portraits of human desperation ever put on film.

Faced with a dying mother, an absent, alcoholic father, and a baby brother in need of care, the teenage Mouchette (Nadine Nortier) seeks solace in nature and daily routine, a respite from her economic and pubescent turmoil. An essential work of French filmmaking, Bresson's hugely empathetic drama elevates its trapped protagonist into one of the cinema's great tragic figures.

Received a Special Distinction and a nomination for the Palm d'Or at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.