Confirmations that were not meant to be: religion, violence and the female body in <i>Un poison violent</i> (2010), <i>Corpo celeste</i> (2011) and <i>Kreuzweg</i> (2014)

This article considers the representation of adolescent female body and relevance corporeality in Catholicism three Western European films, which have at their centre religious confirmation. These are: Un poison violent (Love Like Poison, 2010, Katell Quilléveré), Corpo celeste (Heavenly Body, 2011, Alice Rohrwacher), Kreuzweg (Stations Cross, 2014, Dietrich Brüggemann). The sacrament confirmation as portrayed films becomes axis around dynamics adolescence (i.e., changing body, blossoming sexuality, family conflicts) unfold, opening up a space for analysis interplay between subjectivities Catholicism’s regulatory role. We look often-subtle violence exerted by an attempt to tame ways adolescents (re)negotiate identity against backdrop authority. Our contention is that, protagonists’ subtraction from way distance themselves Catholic obedient reaffirm individual, embodied subjectivity. To this end, we engage with complex relationship Catholicism, women, women’s bodies, exploring dichotomy ideal, unchangeable continually-changing, desiring bodies.