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Why so much hype?

Nice effects though.

Fresh and Exciting

Excellent but underrated film

In the mid-90's, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne had an unpleasant collective experience encouraging them to trim the work force and be as minimal as efficient. You don't win audiences by just taking the camera and "shooting", but for all their innovative directing, storytelling is the siblings' strongest suit, and seldom had directors provided such rich palettes of humanity's struggles through globalized economical crisis as the Dardennes did. Recently, President Trump dared to call some third-world countries with a "S" slur, I only wish him to live the same experience as the protagonist. His name is Igor, he's played by Jeremie Renier, he's only 15 but it's never too late to learn. With his long blonde hair and angelic next-door look, we wouldn't believe this mechanic apprentice is the kind of kid to put himself in trouble, so when he steals an old woman's wallet after checking her engine, we think there must be a "good reason". A girlfriend. A motorcycle to buy. Maybe drugs. But that's too conveniently 'normal' for his age. Igor is no ordinary teenager, we see him with his father Roger, played by the talented Olivier Gourmet, a mix between French Gérard Jugnot and American Paul Giamatti, an everyday man who found the worst possible way to make money. He drives a van occupied by undocumented immigrants, some African, some from Eastern Europe (EU had half less members at that time) and takes them to a shackled building where current residents complain about the rates and the stink. There are obviously some dysfunctions in the sewer lines but Roger, pampering and pimping them, promises to take care... if they help him to finish the construction. But they have to pay.One of them doesn't have enough money, he's a gentle looking African man named Amidu and had just welcomed his wife Assita and their baby boy. Roger has a few standards, he doesn't throw them out but cuts the debts out of Amidu's "wages". This is such an ugly and sordid world that we immediately understand Igor's initial misdemeanor, he's not bad but simply trapped in a maturity too precocious not to be flawed. Igor didn't grow up to be cynical, he just embraces his job with a sense of filial obedience (and maybe love) for his father who, as a token of their complicity, lets him smoke, drive the car or hang out with him at bars. And the first act works on two levels, it's both a father-and-son relationship exposition and an undercover documentary about immigrants' treatment where the camera, right behind Roger or Igor seems to slide between narrow corridors where the doors hide unshaven and worn out men gambling, having sex for money or Assita, whose housewife's dignity doesn't deserve to be surrounded by such sordidness. It's an atmosphere of neo-realism channeling the image of the Turkish Prison from "Midnight Express". In a way, these people are like prisoners of a condition.There's an incredible scene where Igor and Roger lure five immigrants into a café by making them believe they're going to sail to America, only for the cops to apprehend them while Igor hide in the lavatory. This is a powerful scene because it showcases something even worse than human trafficking but betrayal within that trafficking, and betrayal for symbolic purposes, so that the town's mayor can prove that he's handling the situation. So maybe Trump should be reminded that the "S" word he's referring to works in a system of pipes and ramifications that know no frontiers corruption-wise, horizontally and... vertically. Immigrants are like pawns of a system and so is Igor within his father's schemes, this is not a benign parallel because from the start, from the way Igor was peeping at the immigrants' rooms, you knew he didn't look at them like Roger did, not like a warden, but a cellmate, jailed behind the bars of a corrupt adulthood. He could enjoy karting with his friends, having a few moments of freedom on his motorcycle (the film's defining image), but his main occupation was so demanding that it cost him his apprenticeship. At some point, ignoring the warning of his boss, he leaves the garage when Roger calls him for emergency. And then death takes a halt in his life and his journey can begin.To escape from work inspectors, Amidu falls from the scaffold and get mortally injured, Igor tries to prevent the hemorrhages but Roger lets him die and decides to bury him under the cement. The most shocking thing is that we're not even "surprised" by Roger's behavior. But there's a glimmer of hope, before Amidu dies, he makes Igor promise him to take care of his wife and his boy. A last exchange, but that suddenly puts Igor in a situation of conflicting interests with Roger, and Igor knows his father is wrong and will do anything to get rid of Assita when she starts talking about going to the Police.In a poignant and courageous existential impulse, Igor doesn't just take care of Assita but saves her. It's not as easy as it sounds, he must gain her trust, escape from his father and perhaps the toughest thing which is to find the right moment to tell her about her husband. But if this journey started with a tragedy, we know it ends with a redemption, and goes through the gradual awakening of a conscience, of a boy who stopped being an actor. And Jeremie Renier is quite an actor, and I would say "a reactor". He starts as a boy who's seen so many things that he can't even differentiate between good and evil. But he knows for sure that lying to this woman and abusing her is wrong and he acts accordingly so. As for the believability of a teenager and an African woman to slip through the net, let's say that the capability of the Dardennes pair to make such a powerful lesson of empathy with a minimalist budget and equipment is a credit to it.

Igor's father Roger rents his ramshackle flats to illegal immigrants as part of an organized smuggling operation. His exploitation includes offering some with reduced rent to work construction on his building. When inspectors come for a surprise visit, an illegal worker falls to his death. With his dying breath, the worker asks Igor to care for his baby and wife Assita. Igor helps his father hide the dead body. Roger intends to trick Assita but Igor intervenes.Jérémie Renier is a newcomer teenager here. The role is terribly juicy. He tries his best but he may not be prepared. Also Assita Ouedraogo may not be a professional actress but she does have a realism. This is a devastating story. The Dardenne brothers bring a documentary realism. At the same time, they don't necessarily have the skills to bring out superior acting from their actors.

The brothers Dardenne understand how to tell a story without narration. The characters in this movie are strong enough to develop their own lines and short dialogues without commentary. There is no music or sound. The problem of this movie is apparent to "Baran (2001)" but in a different context and country. The style is near to "La Vie de Jésus (1997)" by Bruno Dumont and the hardness of life close to "Seul contre Tous (1998)" by Gaspar Noé. Those last two movies have something more in common: they are situated in the old industrial country of the north of France and the south of Belgium. One could explore a stylistic nearness to Ken Loach but the narration goes deeper. It is the sole existence of mankind who is put into question. Father, why do we live? Igor (Jérémie Rénier) seems to ask continuously to his father Roger (Olivier Gourmet). This film is a good attempt to make something as Belgian social realism without a parade or a revolution by the workers. They seem now to be more isolated (some exception: "Fermeture des usines Renault à Vilvoorde (1998))" and confined to villages with a non-existing working-class. The unemployed seem to have replaced the workers. A strange situation happens when Assita goes to a clairvoyant to know what happened with Amadou and the answer will be as cryptic as the situation wherein she is. Is the promise that Igor made (in fact it was his father) so important? The movie seems to suggest that a 14-year old boy could change the situation and ameliorate the fate of Assita. The real problem is that illegal immigration is a crime that has many consequences and at least it creates innumerable problems when something happens and it is a waste for the society and what more is, it puts the illegal workers into great danger because they come into the hands of people without conscience or humanity.

Mild *SPOILERS*La Promesse, is the story of Igor, a young tear-away who spends his time robbing old ladies who stop by at the garage he works at, working on his go-cart, or helping his father in his work. His work however is helping immigrants across into Belgium and giving them lodging at a house that he is restoring. His father dominates Igor's entire life; that is until Amidou, one of the workers is accidentally killed... The rest of the film focuses on Igor making good on his promise to Amidou that he will look after his wife and baby. The film uses this set-up to look at the power of loyalty, Igor's loyalty to his father, or to the promise he made. This is the first film that I've seen from the Dardenne brothers, but I defiantly look forward to seeing the more recent film Rosetta (1999), their careful handling of the young actor Jérémie Rénier is superb, finding both the subtle innocents and the growing adult awareness that is growing within him (this is a coming of age story) not to mention the fantastic performance from Olivier Gourmet as the boy's father, a man who will beat his son one minute than joke with him the next. There may be some bad points with the film, for instance the central relationship between Igor and Amidou isn't developed enough for us to believe he would willingly stick by his promise, but these hardly deter from this brilliantly acted character piece.7/10