Mouchette is a visual study of a state of mind. Based on a book by Georges Bernanos, author of Diary of a Country Priest (see May 26), it is comparable to that film, but perhaps even more to Au Hazard Balthazar in its depiction of the limits of quiet suffering and humiliation a living being can endure. 14-year-old Mouchette has been denied her childhood by an alcoholic father and a seriously ill mother. With all the responsibilities of running a house and caring for her siblings, including a newborn, her life is an endless chore broken only by school. She observes the adult world from a position of extreme isolation; like the donkey Balthazar, she has no language with which to express her despair. A measure of defiance is brought out in her complicity with Arsène, the village poacher, but, misinterpreting her affection, he rapes her. This final lesson in the callousness of adults informs Mouchette's first, and last, act of open rebellion.