Igor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector ... See full summary »
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Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in a state-run youth farm. In a random act of kindness, the town hairdresser agrees to foster him on weekends.
Directors:
Jean-Pierre Dardenne,
Luc Dardenne
Stars:
Thomas Doret,
Cécile De France,
Jérémie Renier
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who write letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, in search for the father he never knew.
Director:
Walter Salles
Stars:
Fernanda Montenegro,
Marília Pêra,
Vinícius de Oliveira
Sokol and Lorna, two Albanian emigrants in Belgium, dream of leaving their dreary jobs to set up a snack bar. They need money, and a permanent resident status. Claudy is a junkie - he needs... See full summary »
Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
Director:
Laurent Cantet
Stars:
François Bégaudeau,
Agame Malembo-Emene,
Angélica Sancio
A joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
Directors:
Jean-Pierre Dardenne,
Luc Dardenne
Stars:
Olivier Gourmet,
Morgan Marinne,
Isabella Soupart
Jean, a farm lad, wants to escape his silent father; he runs to Paris to his older brother, Georges, who's away covering the war in Kosovo. Angry, he throws a bag of half-eaten pastry into ... See full summary »
Director:
Michael Haneke
Stars:
Juliette Binoche,
Thierry Neuvic,
Josef Bierbichler
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years before... See full summary »
Director:
Wim Wenders
Stars:
Harry Dean Stanton,
Sam Berry,
Dean Stockwell
Igor and his father, Roger, are making a decent living renting apartments to illegal immigrants and sometimes working them illegally (among other scams). But when the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injured Amidou that ultimately exposes the different values of Igor and Roger, and of Amidou's wife, Assita. Written by
Jon Reeves <jreeves@imdb.com>
An hour and 4 minutes into the film (NTSC) when Assita asks Igor to pour some water onto her hair - the sound of water hitting the ground comes before the water is actually seen hitting the ground. See more »
LA PROMESSE is a coming of age story of sorts. The young teenaged protagonist works for his father, who loves him deeply. The father is sleazy exploiter of illegal aliens, and the boy is learning the trade of preying on the defenseless of society that includes theft from the elderly and extortion from the immigrants. And it seems to be suiting him just fine until he helps his father cover up a fatal accident at his construction site. The accident that did not have to be fatal, but the father does not want to risk the scrutiny of the authorities. The boy promises the dying immigrant that he will take care of the man's wife and baby. Slowly the youth begins to question his and his father's morality.
Shot in a documentary style without music score, the urban Antwerp setting as well as the story are uniformly gray and grim. Nonetheless this is an excellent film that tells a terrific moral tale to which there are no easy answers. An excellent rental.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.
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LA PROMESSE is a coming of age story of sorts. The young teenaged protagonist works for his father, who loves him deeply. The father is sleazy exploiter of illegal aliens, and the boy is learning the trade of preying on the defenseless of society that includes theft from the elderly and extortion from the immigrants. And it seems to be suiting him just fine until he helps his father cover up a fatal accident at his construction site. The accident that did not have to be fatal, but the father does not want to risk the scrutiny of the authorities. The boy promises the dying immigrant that he will take care of the man's wife and baby. Slowly the youth begins to question his and his father's morality.
Shot in a documentary style without music score, the urban Antwerp setting as well as the story are uniformly gray and grim. Nonetheless this is an excellent film that tells a terrific moral tale to which there are no easy answers. An excellent rental.