The Dardenne Brothers and La Promesse (The Promise)

Creators of intensely naturalistic films about lower class life in Belgium, brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have created a body of work since 1996 which places them clearly at the fore of contemporary Belgian cinema and among the world’s most critically respected filmmakers as well. With La promesse (The Promise) (1996), Rosetta (1999), Le fils (The Son) (2002), and L’Enfant (The Child) (2005), the Dardennes’ films are stark but modest portrayals of young people at the fringes of society – immigrants, the unemployed, the inhabitants of shelters. Both Rosetta and L’enfant were awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the only two Belgian films ever to earn the honor. -Wikipedia

I just watched the Dardenne Brother's film "La Promesse" (The Promise) which is about a teenage boy named Igor (Jérémie Renier) and his father, Roger (Olivier Gourmet) who have a secret business of housing illegal immigrants and making them work on a house for pay. Everything seems to be running smoothly untill the building inspector comes to pay them a visit. Igor trys to hurry the immigrants into hiding by making them run behind a hill towards the back of the house. In the mad rush, an immigrant named Amidou, who has recently managed to get his wife and newborn baby into the apartment's falls from the scaffold he was working on. Igor attempts to help Amidou, but Amidou is unable to get up. Amidou's last words to Igor were "Take care of my wife and child" Igor then makes the promise that will force him into fleeing from his father and his criminal business to help Amidou's wife, Assita (Assita Ouedraogo) find her way back to her husband who unbeknownst to her, had not fled to Italy because of debt, but had died days ago. Igor is not only hiding from his father, but is also hiding the truth from Assita about her husband.



This was a really nice film. Although it is set in some sort of post industrial landscape, I found the scenery quite beautiful. It has a lot of aspects I love about cinema. Subtlety, realism, hand held camera work and an abrudt ending that is open to leave the viewer to decide what happens next.

Incidentally, whilst I was flicking blindly through the foreign film section, I picked up two Dardenne brothers film. One was this one and the other was called "The Son" I chose to take this one home instead simply because it was made earlier and with any artists or directors I am discovering for the first time, I like to try their earlier works or more "unknown" works before I take on the rest of their catalog.

I can't wait to see more of The Dardenne Brothers film's.