Summary: Named after a thirteenth-century mystic, Hadewijch presents the spiritual journey of Céline (Julie Sokolowski), a young novice nun who is expelled because of her overzealous faith, and sent back into the world by the mother superior. As she returns to live with her parents in their sumptuous Parisian apartment, Hadewijch once again becomes Céline, the daughter of a French minister. Here she meets Yassine, an Arab boy who introduces her to the lights of Paris, and the cités (the Arab and African immigrant housing projects). Céline’s passionate love of God, her rage, her unease with her haute-bourgeois parents, and her encounter with the volatile Yassine and more importantly his brother Nassir, a devout Muslim, leads her between grace and madness, further off along dangerous paths. Hadewijch won the 2009 Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI ) at the Toronto Film Festival.
