The story takes place in 1921, in an exclusive girls’ school on the outskirts of Paris run by the eccentric Madame de Challens. Sexual perversion, morphine addiction, and murderous madness are on the curriculum. One of the pupils, Lucienne, has gone missing.

At the same time Madame de Challens awaits the return of Solange, the school’s eccentric dance teacher. Solange has only recently been released from the psychiatric clinic where she was being treated for drug addiction, and kleptomania related to her obsession with stealing silk from department stores.

When Lucienne returns to the school, Solange becomes fascinated by her and takes the girl off to an abandoned property on an island in the Seine. Father Pioch, the school’s sinister chaplain is convinced that he has to save the girls from the influence of Madame de Challens and Solange. He decides to arrange an exorcism to purge the evil from the school. Tragic events ensue.

The film was based on a banned 1921 “grand guignol” play and was adapted for the screen and directed by Jacques Baratier one of France’s most original and adventurous film makers.

- "Memories and Analysis - crew and critics discuss the film
- Jacques Baratier 101 - a look at the career of Jacques Baratie

REVIEWS:

“Weaves a web of dream-logic erotic snippets with some dark and perverse undercurrents” Worldwide Celluloid Massacre

 “an erotic desolation of the lead character where the beauty and power of sex and desirable obsessions become a psychological trap.” Jon Peters, Letterboxd

 “Around 1920, in a boarding school for young girls, the escape of a student involves a strange police inspector who, imperceptibly, will become the accomplice of a crime he is supposed to prevent” Notre Cinema "