Jennifer (2015), Cambridge Film Festival

With Jennifer, Nina Danino continues the work begun with Now I am Yours (1992) and Temenos (1997). Jennifer is an enclosed Carmelite nun. Within the monastery, the cloistered community live out an ideal of work and prayer as a creative life following the Discalced Carmelite Rule.
This film centres on Jennifer and takes us through the chores and rituals of daily life. She has recreation time but most of her day is spent in prayer. In
two interviews she talks about what brought her
to this way of life. The interior of the monastery itself becomes a presence; its rooms enfold the reverberations of this total world. But there are porous boundaries between the monastery and
its surroundings through sound and light and the comings and goings of the world outside at the turnstile door.
The film gives us rare access into enclosed life. Enclosure is a choice, but what does it mean to live this life? What are the difficulties of this “sublime endeavour” as St. Teresa calls it and what are its rewards?