Innocence is a 2004 French avant-garde coming-of-age psychological drama film written and directed by Lucile Hadžihalilović in her feature directorial debut, inspired by the 1903 novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls by Frank Wedekind, and starring Marion Cotillard. The film follows a year in the life of the girls in the third dormitory at a secluded boarding school, where new students arrive in coffins.

Plot

After a series of images of rushing water, forest, and dark, empty subterranean hallways, six-year-old Iris arrives inside a coffin placed in a dormitory's common area, where she is met with general warmth and curiosity by the other six girls who live in the house. After dressing her in a uniform matching theirs and brushing and braiding her hair, the girls all exchange hair ribbons: each girl gets the ribbons passed down from the girl a year above her, and the colour marks their age and year in the school. Iris, the new youngest "red ribbon", unfortunately excites the ire of seven-year-old Selma, the former red ribbon and now orange ribbon, who complains about the absence of the former violet-ribbon Natashka—the oldest who had been her friend. The new violet ribbon, twelve-year-old Bianca, takes Iris under her wing. At first Iris is homesick, and wants to be reunited with her brother, but Bianca matter-of-factly tells her there is no possibility of that: there are no boys allowed in the school. All of the girls in the school go swimming in the lake, and Iris quickly befriends Laura, the red-ribbon of another house. That night, much to Iris's dismay, Bianca leaves on an authorized mysterious errand that she cannot discuss. The next day, Iris has a routine day at the school – dance lessons, classroom time with animals, and recreation. The classes at the school are run by two pretty young women: Mademoiselle Edith, who walks with a cane and teaches lessons, and Mademoiselle Eva, who teaches dance. Each house is cared for by an elderly serving woman; the girls whisper that all of the employees are girls who tried to escape the walled school in their youth, and were pressed into permanent service as punishment.