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Such a frustrating disappointment

Absolutely the worst movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

In 1400, in Puglia, Southern Italy, the nobleman father of Flavia (Florinda Bolkan) beheads her lover and locks her away in a seaside convent. Flavia questions the submissive treatment of women and is submitted to the repressive Catholic system in the convent. When Flavia has the chance, she flees from the convent with the Jew friend Abraham (Claudio Cassinelli). However, they are captured by her father and Flavia is whipped and Abraham is imprisoned in the dungeons. During the Musulman invasion of Italy, Flavia becomes the lover of their Muslin leader Ahmed (Anthony Corlan) and uses him to revenge against the nuns that have humiliated her and her father. I was curious to see this 1978 movie of nunsploitation, not because I am fan of this subgenre of exploitation film, but because of the Brazilian Florinda Bolkan. "Flavia, la Monaca Musulmana" is a brutal nunsploitation, associating the usual themes of sexual repression and religious oppression with revenge. There is no historical background and most of the situations are only pretext for nudity, torture and violence. Now I am satisfied but this film is only recommended to very specific audiences since it is very offensive specially for religious viewers. In the Extras of the DVD, there is an interview with Florinda Bolkan. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Flávia, a Freira Muçulmana" ("Flavia, the Muslin Nun")

Several months back, I watched Brazilian actress Florinda Bolkan play the part of a vengeful modern-day nun in the 1978 Italian exploitation film "The Last House on the Beach." As it turns out, though, four years earlier, Florinda had also played the role of a vengeful sister, in the infamous Italian/French coproduction "Flavia the Heretic." This earlier, film, however, takes place around the year 1400, in the Pulia region of southern Italy. In the film, Flavia Gaetani is forced into a nunnery by her monstrous father. She witnesses the ugliness and brutality of the era and, protofeminist that she is, wonders why men have all the power, both in the Church and secular life. She decides to run away from the nunnery, is captured and punished, and ultimately seeks her sexual awakening--as well as her vengeance on the convent and her father--with an army of invading Muslims. Florinda, who appears in virtually every scene in the film, has rarely been better--she is a terrific actress--the picture's lovely and memorable score by Nicola Piovani does much to establish a medieval atmosphere, and director Gianfranco Mingozzi's work here is assured and imaginative. The picture looks very authentic, with excellent attention to period detail; it was largely filmed in the town of Trani, in Pulia, on the Adriatic, near where the actual events of this story transpired. A word of warning to prospective viewers: This is an extremely violent film, featuring fairly graphic depictions of beheadings, various impalements, nipple slicing, equine castration, burning tar torture...not to mention Flavia's stomach-churning ultimate fate. The picture also contains several fantasy segments that would make Bunuel smile with approbation. In all, a serious film that should please not only feminists of all stripes, but also the gorehounds, as well as fans of nunsploitation and Euro horror. A rare interview with Florinda today, an extra on this great-looking DVD from Synapse, is the icing on the cake. Pair this film with 1970's "Mark of the Devil"--another picture that features brutal violence in the name of the Church, and also set hundreds of years ago and to a gorgeous score--for a double feature that may require several glasses of holy wine before venturing in....

This is the most notorious of the "nunsploitation" movies but it's also very atypical of the genre (if "nunsploitation" can be called a genre). For one thing it is serious, believable, and fairly historically accurate. For another thing it generally avoids being merely crass exploitation. There is sex and nudity but it is all in the context of the film. There is also A LOT of violence, but it is truly unpleasant and ugly violence--it is obviously not meant to simply titillate the audience. (I actually saw the edited version but I doubt it is any less powerful--what you picture in your mind when you realize what is happening on screen is at least as terrible as anything that could have been achieved with cheesy 1970's special effects). This film could also be considered part of the "rape-revenge" genre except that after the rape and revenge there is in turn yet more revenge against the avenging woman, and each time the violence escalates a little more until all the characters are tainted and the movie ends up being a wholesale condemnation of human cruelty and a powerful statement on the ultimate futility of violence. I'm sure many people will find this movie tasteless or offensive but when you consider how many movies--especially mainstream Hollywood movies--glorify and romanticize violence, presenting it as a valid way to resolve any problem, you truly realize how courageous and refreshing a movie like this is.

(aka: FLAVIA THE HERETIC)Finally Synapse releases the full, uncut version with the sex, torture and nudity intact. This is supposed to be the ultimate 'nuns in hell' movie, so it deserved a definitive version.In the 15th Century, Flavia is sent to a convent by her evil father in order to cleanse her soul. She questions why the rules are the way they are and why men have to be in charge of everything. She also questions why nuns are routinely tortured for even the slightest of transgressions.For instance, in a truly repellant scene, they dip cups of black tar on the stomach and breast of one nun and then cut her burned nipple off. Flavia can't stand any of this so she runs away with a local Jew who is an overseer of her father's dowry to the church. They are quickly caught and sent back to be punished. Flavia gets flogged with a whip while her Jewish companion is held in a dungeon with chains.Then Flavia takes up with a Moslem commander after an attack on a coastal church, thereby guaranteeing her revenge on the convent. The Moslems rape and pillage the nuns, leaving all of them dead except for Flavia. She also stands by while the Moslems push her father down a hole leading into the torture chamber they used to routinely punished the nuns. The scene where the blond woman climbs into a cow's carcass is classic, although I think Pier Paolo Pasolini did something similar to that in one of his films. No? In the end, her Moslem lover leaves her behind because she is disobedient, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the surviving Christians who torture her in an obscene manner. You the viewer will have to see it for yourself.The film does have it's flaws, however. The pace is a little slow-going at times and the battle scenes between the Christians and the Moslems looks amateurish. The Synapse DVD has an interview with Florinda Bolkan concerning her views on feminism and the making of this film. She's aged quite a bit in the last 25 years, although I think she was already in her mid-30s when she made this film.6 out of 10 for showing some originality in the nun genre.