Sandwiched between "les salauds vont en enfer" and "toi le venin ", in Hossein 's filmography, "pardonnez nos offenses " is the weakest link .It seems that the actor/director wanted to make his own "rebel without a cause " complete with the hopeless parents ,the packs , and the final tragedy.
It promised good things ;fine young actors: Marina Vlady , Hossein's then wife ,Pierre Vaneck ,Giani Esposito , Roger Coggio; the director's flair for film noir; the packs sometimes moving like ballets ; a scenery a la "on the waterfront" ; and one third of the movie is silent.
But the screenplay is hopeless:in the docks (of the bay?) ,two groups confront each other : young teenagers left to their own devices by their families, and a band of gypsies.A guy rapes a gypsy girl ;as a reprisal for it, the nomadics rape the leader of the pack's girlfriend who falls in love with a nice gypsy ....
Violence and sex ,but Marina Vlady , in turn a tomboy or a long-haired melancholy girl ,does not possess here the tenth of her erotic appeal in "les salauds vont en enfer".
