The Little Hours is a 2017 black comedy film written and directed by Jeff Baena and loosely based on stories from the third day of The Decameron, a 14th-century collection of novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio. It stars an ensemble cast featuring Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Aubrey Plaza, Kate Micucci, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, and Fred Armisen.

Set in the 14th century, The Little Hours uses modern dialogue – in the spirit of its source material – improvised by the actors based on Baena’s detailed outline. It focuses on the sex lives of its characters, including nuns at a convent (Brie, Micucci, Plaza and Shannon) in rural Tuscany, a local coven of witches, and a young servant (Franco) who ends up pretending to be a deaf-mute gardener at the convent after running away from his master (Nick Offerman).

It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2017, and was theatrically released by Gunpowder & Sky, the company’s first such distribution, on June 30, 2017. Muted complaints from Catholic groups did not affect the film, which received generally positive reviews from critics featuring praise for the cast’s performances.

In 1347 Garfagnana, Sister Fernanda returns to her convent with their donkey after missing Lauds. She curses out the friendly groundskeeper Lurco; Sister Ginevra, who shows sycophantic devotion to Fernanda, joins in. Sister Alessandra gets to meet with her father Ilario, impatiently asking when he will take her out of the convent so she can marry. Ilario says this will not happen, as despite being wealthy he cannot afford a dowry for her. The three nuns encounter Lurco outside, who smiles at Fernanda. When she and Ginevra shout at him again, Alessandra – in a foul mood after Fernanda antagonized her about her conversation – joins in even more abusively. Lurco leaves the convent because of this, stopping Father Tommasso to tell him as Tommasso is leaving to sell embroidery.

In Lunigiana, Lord Bruno is lecturing to his bored wife Francesca about the evil of Guelphs. Francesca takes servant boy Massetto [it] to bed; Bruno goes to check on her, seeing Massetto leave through the window. In the servants’ quarters, Bruno identifies Massetto by his fast heartbeat and, in the dark, shears off some of his hair to mark him. Come morning, all the men are missing hair and Bruno lets them go. He talks about Guelphs again at breakfast, prompting Francesca to seek out Massetto in the grounds: Bruno sees their interaction from the castle walls and Massetto is driven out by his guards.

Tommasso became drunk on his journey and lost the embroidery in a river. Massetto, crossing the river at the same time, offers to help him fix the crashed cart, and returns to the convent with him. The men get drunk on sacramental wine and Massetto confesses to his adultery; Tommasso offers him shelter and work at the convent as a gardener on the condition he pretend to be deaf-mute, in the hopes that if the nuns cannot rile him up they will leave him alone. Massetto smiles at Alessandra, who returns the gesture, in the courtyard; though Fernanda initially abuses him, too, when Mother Marea informs the nuns he is deaf-mute, she tones down her behavior. Alessandra is implored to embroider at a faster rate due to Tommasso’s losses, and in frustration damages her frame. She takes it to Massetto to repair, confiding in him; the other nuns watch her leave.