Harrowing New Film Reveals True Horror of the Epstein Era

Frédéric Batier / Frédéric Batier/Netflix The Epstein Files have shown the world that rich and powerful men will often use their privileged positions to abuse children.

Yet as demonstrated by Dateline NBC ’s To Catch a Predator series—the subject of last year’s documentary Predators and this September’s Robert Pattinson-headlined drama Primetime —the scourge of pedophilia also exists in everyday society.

It’s in that nondescript domestic arena that Gentle Monster locates the shock, horror, and trauma wrought by this heinous crime.

A harrowing portrait of the human toll of such depravity, it’s as timely as it is heart-wrenching.

Screening at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept.

15 following its Cannes Film Festival premiere (and ahead of its Oct.

30 debut in theaters and Nov.

18 bow on Netflix), Austrian writer/director Marie Kreutzer’s film approaches its hot-button topic from a ground-level female perspective.

Lucy (Léa Seydoux) is a concert pianist who covers songs written by men; “I take their words and question them,” she explains.

While her introductory rendition of Charles & Eddie’s “Would I Lie to You?” is piercingly relevant, it’s not her chosen artists who need investigating but, rather, her husband Philip (Laurence Rupp).

A documentary filmmaker, Philip has relocated with Lucy and their young son Johnny (Malo Blanchet) from Munich to the countryside.

And as suggested by a fragmentary glimpse of Lucy soothing Philip during a severe breakdown, the reason for this move is a fresh start.

Early snippets around their rustic home, with Philip and Lucy building a trampoline for Johnny and making love on a floor mattress, reveal them as a happy, close-knit clan.

Blissful tranquility, alas, is short-lived, as they’re unexpectedly visited by Elsa Kühn (Jella Haase), a police officer who confiscates all of Philip’s digital devices and hard drives.