Behind Convent Walls – 1978 – Walerian Borowczyk

I’ve seen a few movies by Walerian Borowczyk before. I think they’re all more or less kind of difficult to watch. Not because of the adult themes often included in them but for the slow-paced process of the plot. Behind Convent Walls isn’t an exception to that rule. There’s actually not much going on. It’s more like a snapshot of what goes on behind the closed door of the convent. And let me tell you, there are not many things these nuns won’t do to pleasure themselves.

Walerian Borowczyk isn’t scared to show them just like any other people. Or in fact slightly more sinful than the average person I think. The fact that they are nuns makes it kind of blasphemous but also more exciting. That’s a basic thing for us humans. Even Markis de Sade stated that in one of his novels. The for forbidden something is the more exciting it becomes. In his case it might have been arousing though.

Easy Start

It starts off pretty easy. It doesn’t stay that way for long though. Soon we found the nuns singing and dancing and taking their clothes off. It doesn’t take long before we see one of them having sex inside the convent. The man having intercourse with her flees once they are discovered but the mother superior though. One of them carves out a dildo from a piece of wood and with a Jesus figure on it she masturbates with it. That’s apparently a scene that is cut from many versions of the film but this one is uncut.

But dildos, masturbation, intercourse, and lesbianism isn’t the only thing these nuns submits themselves to. I didn’t notice when I saw it years ago but there are actually immortal sins in there as well. There’s Gluttony in there and I’m sure there are others to be found if we start to look more carefully. Behind Convent Walls portrays life inside the convent as the most sinful place.

I like the concept of nunsploitation overall. I like the blasphemous approach to it. This might not be the best of the sub-genre out there and it’s not the most explicit one when it comes to sex. But it all seems natural. There’s no need to force anything. The nuns seem to enjoy themselves beyond any limitation of sins. It’s obviously a film you must see if you’re into nunsploitation. The picture of this release isn’t so good. But on the other hand, if the quality gets too good it will lose realism. We won’t get the illusion of an accurate visualization any more.