Adapted from the play by the French catholic writer Paul Claudel, this is the only movie directed by French stage actor Alain Cuny. It shows the story of a young girl Violaine who out of charity, kisses a leper, though she is to marry Jacques, a man her father Anne, chose for her. She then contract leprosy, and is the victim of the nastiness of her jealous sister Mara. Her father can't defend her, as he left for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but her fiancé finds the strength to believe in her innocenceDevoted to serve the text, Cuny tried and succeeded in making the spectator feel the mysteries of faith and pure charity, re-inventing in a way the grammar of cinema,the way CT Dreyer and Robert Bresson did...Not for everyone's taste,but a very rare gem, worth watching.