A slow, complex and involving tale of a French priest and his moral trials and tribulations, Under the Sun of Satan is adapted from the Georges Bernanos novel of the same name. Father Donissan (Gerard Depardieu) struggles to save the soul of the 16-year-old pregnant woman Mouchette (Sandrine Bonnaire) in this allegorical drama. She is the mistress of a married politician, but she carries the child of a poor nobleman. Mouchette shoots and kills the nobleman when he refuses to run away with her, and the emotionally tortured Donissan flagellates himself with a chain and despises his superior Menou-Serais (Maurice Pialot). This dramatic struggle of good versus evil took the Golden Palm Award for Best Film at the 1987 Cannes Festival. The selection was not without controversy, as the verbal protests of the audience led to an obscene gesture from the miffed director.

It is based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos, and tells the story of a devout priest who becomes involved with a murderess. The film won the Palme d'Or prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival. The film had 815,748 admissions in France.[

Release Date: February 10, 1989

Distrib: Alive Films