Mouchette

Mouchette lives in an isolated French village, taking care of her bedridden mother and infant brother, while doing all the household chores. She faces social ostracism at school due to her ragged clothes and is reprimanded by her teacher for refusing to sing during class. Her life is marked by hardship and loneliness from the very beginning.

To escape her bleak daily life, Mouchette visits a local fair where she is offered a token to ride the bumper cars. She shares a playful and flirtatious interaction with a young man during the ride. Her brief moment of happiness is interrupted when her father comes to take her away from the fair.

While walking home from school, Mouchette gets lost during a rainstorm and seeks shelter in the woods. She encounters Arsène, an alcoholic epileptic poacher, who happens upon her and takes her to his hut. This marks a turning point in her tumultuous journey.

At Arsène's hut, he suffers a seizure due to his epilepsy. During this vulnerable moment, Mouchette tends to him, but he begins to see her as a threat. Before she can leave, Arsène captures her and sexually assaults her, compounding her trauma.

Mouchette manages to escape from Arsène's hut early in the morning. She returns home, where she cares for her hungry, crying baby brother and tends to her weak mother. Her return marks a moment of quiet suffering and resilience amid ongoing hardships.

Mouchette’s weak mother, longing for an end to her pain, requests a bottle of gin to die peacefully. Mouchette finds her mother dead when she checks, leaving her with increased burdens and emotional turmoil. Her mother’s death intensifies her feelings of loss and despair.

On her way to buy milk, a shopkeeper offers her free coffee and a croissant. The shopkeeper notices a scratch on her chest and verbally abuses her, calling her a 'little slut.' Elderly women dressed in black are seen heading to church, emphasizing the community's judgmental attitude toward her.

Later, Mouchette discusses her story with the gamekeeper Mathieu and his wife, trying to appear as though she was with Arsène. She reluctantly claims Arsène is her lover, revealing her attempt to cover up her traumatic experience in the woods.

Mouchette is invited into an elderly woman’s house, who provides her with dresses and a shroud for the funeral of her mother. The woman advises her on honoring the dead, and gives her three dresses that fit her, symbolizing a moment of fleeting care amidst her suffering. She acts out in anger, insulting the woman and damaging her carpet.

Mouchette witnesses hunters shooting rabbits and notices a wounded rabbit that cannot hop away. The scene underscores the cruelty and violence in her environment. The incident deeply affects her, highlighting her sensitivity to suffering and brutality.

In a symbolic act, Mouchette changes into a dress by the river and begins to roll down a hill repeatedly until her clothes are soiled. Eventually, she jumps into the river, a act of surrender and escape, never to return. Her final act encapsulates her tragic descent into despair.