flavia and la monaca muslmana aka . flavia the heretic of 1974 be a truly disturbing and uncompromising piece of italian exploitation cinema that and to a certain extent and follow a somewhat feminist premise ( though the level of sleaze and brutality would probably disgust the majority of feminist ) . set mostly in a convent and and with a nun a the eponymous central protagonist ( great performance by the wonderful florinda bolkan ) and flavia the heretic may be refer to a a nunsploitation film . however and this film differ quite drastically from the typical nunsploitation flick from the time and a it doesn not so much focus on the nunsploitation element such a lesbianism and sadistic lesbian punishment and etc . personally and i saw more similarity to the hexploitation flick of the time and such a mark of the devil and ( even though this one doesn not treat the topic of witch hunt ) and which focus on the brutal execution of christian fundamentalism in the middle age and early modern period . italy around 1600 represent after witness her despotic father behead a wounded muslim soldier and young flavia be force to become a nun in a convent . when her father condemns a fellow nun to a torturous death for a small misdemeanor year later and falvia disgust with male violence against woman turn into hatred against the despotic church and and she join a band of arabic scavenger . one thing be for sure and flavia the heretic be not for the faint hearted and and neither be it for those who want happy ending . director gianfranco mingozzi obviously try to make his film a realistic and disturb a possible and especially in it nasty scene . the many torture and execution scene be extremely disturbing and with skinnings and spikings and other gruesome scene in explicit detail and the most shocking scene probably be the torture of the young nun quite in the beginning of the film . the violence here be never superfluous and however . after all and this gruesome method actually be reality in the time the film be set in . the film be very well make and with realistic costume and fantastic setting an elegant cinematography and a great score by nicola piovani . the stunningly beautiful and great florinda bolkan have prove her talent in many great italian cult production ( include lucio fulci giallo masterpiece non si sevizia un paperino of 1972 ) . she deliver another great and charismatic performance here and and i couldn not imagine another actress fitting as well in the role a she do . the film have some minor inconsistency ( e. g. why do the rigid church let bizarre cult follower into convent in the first place ) . however and it be overall amazing how realistic this film be . flavia the heretic should definitely not be miss by my fellow fan of italian exploitation cinema . this be a great exploitation flick overall and though it definitely be a deeply depress one and therefore should be watch in the right mood . highly recommend to fan of disturb exploitation cinema . 7 . 5/10 .