thunder

Thunder

Directed by Carmen Jaquier
Switzerland | 2022 | Narrative
92 minutes

After the sudden and mysterious death of her sister, a 17-year-old novitiate explores her God-given right to experience life to the fullest, during the summer of 1900 in a lush Swiss valley. Elisabeth – the second of four girls – is preparing to take her vows at a nunnery, where she was sent to pray for her family’s protection from the disasters of life. After five years in pious seclusion, Elisabeth’s fate is abruptly altered when she is summoned home to work the fields following the death of her elder sister, Innocente. While it was Innocente who instilled in Elisabeth a devotion to God, she learns that her sister’s soul has been condemned to wander. Obedient siblings Adèle and Paule seem to understand their prescribed roles, but the maddening silence surrounding Innocente’s mysterious death pushes Elisabeth to seek answers from three childhood friends – now young men with their own cravings for truth and connection. Inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 neorealist drama “The Gospel According to St. Matthew.”