La settima donna (1978)

The story takes place in an isolated villa on the Italian coast. The protagonist is Sister Cristina (played by Florinda Bolkan), a young, kind nun who works as a private tutor. During the summer, she decides to host six teenage girls for an intensive study session. The villa is far from the bustle of the city, surrounded by peace and quiet. However, while the girls spend their days studying and relaxing peacefully, their idyllic stay is soon shattered. Three criminals have just robbed a bank and take refuge in their seaside villa while the five students are rehearsing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for their end-of-year play. The three robbers, led by the brutal Walter, burst violently into the house, immediately showing their ferocity. Their first victim is the housekeeper, who realizes what is happening and tries to call for help, but Walter catches her and beats her brutally before killing her with an iron. One of the girls, in shock, goes to the bathroom to change, but Nino follows her and tries to rape her. She fights back and manages to stab him in the leg with the pointed handle of a comb. While interrogating the girls, the bandits learn that a minibus will come to pick them up in three days, forcing them to find an escape route quickly. Aldo fears that the police may discover them, but Walter is convinced that their hideout is safe and that no one will look for them there. When evening falls, one of the girls suggests that Cristina escape to get help, but the nun refuses because she does not want any of her pupils to risk their lives. She believes their only option is to buy time, certain that Tilda, the cleaning woman, has gone to get help. However, Walter dashes their hopes by bringing Tilda’s corpse into the room, shocking all the girls as they realize the gravity of the situation. Despite his indifference, Aldo is the only one who is sometimes friendlier toward the girls, even as he continues to carry out orders without hesitation. When the bandits find the nun’s clothes, they discover that Cristina is a nun. They order her to undress in front of everyone and put her religious clothes back on, but despite the humiliation, Cristina remains composed and strong, enduring their abuse. Meanwhile, at the convent, the other nuns try to contact Cristina to warn her that the minibus will not be coming, but they suspect nothing is wrong because the phone has lost its signal before. They decide to send her a telegram. In the meantime, bored, Walter and Aldo take Cristina and rape her. During dinner, Walter taunts her, saying that he has found out she is no longer a virgin. Cristina, however, responds without shame, telling the girls that before becoming a nun, she was a woman like any other. As night falls, the girls suggest letting one of them escape to get help, but Cristina stops them, explaining that if one of them runs away, all the others will be killed. They must act cautiously. That night, Nino and Walter take one of the girls and rape her. Cristina tries to intervene, but they beat her and restrain her, forcing her to watch helplessly. The following morning, the postman arrives with the telegram from the convent. The robbers threaten Cristina and the girls not to do anything to alert him. Cristina secretly writes a plea for help on a banknote, which she leaves as a tip for the postman. After reading the telegram, the robbers realize they still have a day to arrange their escape. Meanwhile, Nino’s wound gets worse, and Cristina, who knows a little medicine, offers to treat him in exchange for Aldo’s promise that they will not touch the girls again. Aldo accepts the deal and also manages to repair the car. The trio then decide to celebrate their imminent escape. Two girls go looking for bottles of wine and, while searching through the rooms, are horrified to discover the postman’s corpse. Aldo has killed him, having guessed that he played a part in conveying Cristina’s plea for help. One of the girls manages to escape, but Aldo catches her even after she throws herself into the sea in an attempt to get away. That night, with Walter’s help, Nino sadistically kills the girl who had wounded him, pushing a stick between her legs. While Cristina goes to fetch medicine for Nino, whose wound has worsened, she finds the girl’s body in the living room and realizes, horrified, that Aldo never intended to keep his promise. At the end of her endurance, and seeing how cruel the bandits are, she thinks of the murdered girl and, driven by a fierce desire for revenge, Sister Cristina renounces her vows and decides to fight back. Nino is the first to suffer her revenge, as he is now too weak to defend himself. Cristina injects him with a lethal dose of poison using a syringe. Worried about his companion, Walter goes upstairs to check on him and finds him dead on the floor. Startled, he turns around only to come face to face with Cristina, who shoots him three times in the face with Nino’s gun. Aldo and Cristina engage in a brief fight, interrupted when one of the girls intervenes, picks up Lino’s rifle, and shoots Aldo in the stomach. Still wounded, Aldo is then beaten to death by the other girls, who strike him with sticks, bringing their nightmare to an end. After the carnage, Cristina silently removes the ring from her finger, a sign that she has left her former life behind.