Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have spent their career telling stories about characters living on the margins of Belgian society, and their 10th feature Tori and Lokita takes us back to the territory of their debut La Promesse, as it explores the exploitation of undocumented African immigrants.
That 1996 film was told through a white Belgian protagonist – with Jérémie Renier’s Igor being the first Dardennes lead to find himself at a moral crossroads – but the brothers have shifted their perspective here to follow two children from Cameroon and Benin. They may be the most vulnerable characters these filmmakers have yet given us.