TORI AND LOKITA

NEW DARDENNES FILM OUT DECEMBER 2ND

The Dardenne Brothers return with another moral drama that rages against social injustice this time looking upon the hardships endured by two African immigrants as they navigate safe passage while in exile on the streets of modern Europe.

Shot with a hand-held medium to close-up style reminiscient of other works, it destabilises the viewer by putting them very much in the point of view of the adolescents with the peril they find themselves, the watch is not pleasant but when commenting on something as uncomfortable as human trafficking it should not be.

For long periods, the pair are apart from each other as the struggle becomes very real for them both as they have to pay smugglers, work for cannabis growers all off the grid seemingly without their papers. We bare witness to this due to the filming nature and the isolation felt by them is real throughout - the influence of De Sica's Bicycle Thieves remains.

The toil the two young unprofessional actors have to endure is there for all to see, yet the pair Pablo Schils (Tori) and Joely Mbundu (Lokita) conduct themselves admirably throughout, the decision to cast unknowns (a regular occurence in the Dardennes oeuvre) is again a masterstroke as the lack of baggage for the audience with the youthful pair leads to empathy coming to the forefront.

The message of friendship and solidarity between the two is paramount and told so evocatively that the notion of self-sacrifice by one to the other is not a surprise, considering how exploited as individuals they become. The suspense felt is palpable at times. The climatic chase expertly done yet that flourish of action amidst the cruelty beforehand smacks less than those felt by the characters at times. 

This is an angry film about the plight so many people have to endure moving from conflict to conflict as in life though, it is not so much the destination but the journey itself that is the story. Deeply powerful and yet understated in its execution, Tori and Lokita is a watch to endure yet remember.

Tori and Lokita is out from Picturehouse Entertainment on Friday 2nd December

The Unknown Girl

The Dardennes brothers (The Kid With a Bike, L'Enfant) are back with their new film The Unknown Girl out on DVD from Curzon Artificial Eye on Monday 6th February.

The film tells the story about a young female doctor, Jenny Davin (Adele Haenel) in small town Liege, Belgium; who after a long day refuses to open the door to her clinic when already an hour after closing. The next morning policemen tell her that the young woman - a black African immigrant working as a prostitute.

This starts a moral guilt in our young female protagonist, a conflicting individual who is almost bullying to her young trainee doctor. The trainee is a male and she admits she did not open the door to the girl to instill a means of superiority.

She begins an investigation to find out the identity of the young girl who has been buried without a name so here family can be informed.

The Dardennes are famous for small town stories with universal themes, here are tropes of privacy, guilt and belonging. Jenny is unusual in the sense that we do not know her history, where has she come from; we are aware of her future more with the impending clinic she may well take control of. The story makes her reassess her decisions and she does alter from lacking bedside manner to becoming a better local GP by using her local knowledge to her advantage.

Shot with gripping hand held flourish in the same vein as classic neo-realism and the better Ken Loach films, bringing a sense of documentary realism to a fictional story.

It also has a political message on immigration within EU borders in today's current political climate providing a compelling platform for this intelligent film with a brave central performance from Haenel.

The Unknown Girl is out on DVD from Monday 6th February from Curzon Artificial Eye