Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne • 1996 • Belgium
Starring Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Assita Ouédraogo
LA PROMESSE is the breakthrough feature from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, who would go on to become a force in world filmmaking. The brothers brought the unerring eye for detail and the compassion for those on society’s lowest rungs developed in their earlier documentary work to this absorbing drama about a teenager (Jérémie Renier) gradually coming to understand the implications of his father’s making a living through the exploitation of undocumented workers. Filmed in the Dardennes’ industrial hometown of Seraing, Belgium, LA PROMESSE is a brilliantly economical and observant tale of a boy’s troubled moral awakening.
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Le Havre
Directed by Aki Kaurismäki • 2011 • Finland, France
Starring Blondin Miguel, André WilmsIn this warmhearted comic yarn from Aki Kaurismäki, fate throws the young African refugee Idrissa (Blondin Miguel) into the path of Marcel Marx (André Wilms), a kindly old bohemian who shines shoes for a liv...
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Dheepan
Directed by Jacques Audiard • 2015 • France
Starring Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine VinasithambyWith this Palme d’Or–winning drama, which deftly combines seemingly disparate genres, French filmmaker Jacques Audiard cemented his status as a titan of contemporary world ...
