Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne are back at the Cannes Film Festival, where they won the Palme d'Or for Rosetta in 1999 and for L'Enfant in 2005, with their new feature film Tori and Lokita, presented in the official competition. It follows the wandering in Belgium of Tori(Pablo Schils) and Lokita(Joely Mbundu), two minors from Benin. To be discovered in theaters on October 5, 2022.
The young Tori, as tall as three apples, and the teenager, a little older, are left to their own devices and find themselves, by their illegal entry into Belgium, at the bottom of the social ladder. But as is often the case with the Dardenne brothers, some of the rungs of the ladder are sawn off, others are covered with a good layer of oil, others are missing altogether, and this recomposed sibling group seems destined to remain in its place. Violence of words and gestures.
From the first scene in which Lokita is forced to answer a barrage of questions from a social worker to determine whether Tori, who has just obtained his papers, is indeed his blood brother, to the film's last striking scene, which some may find to be a bit of a stretch, The Dardennes set up the shackles of an exploitative and Manichean society where no human being is willing to reach out to the two young men - the cook, also a drug dealer and rapist, makes them deliver drugs, the Beninese smuggler extorts them, preventing them from sending their few savings to the very insistent family back home.
A feeling ofunrealism and a difficulty in believing in it then sets in, so much this chain of situations more dramatic than the others seems exaggerated and doomed to failure. Fortunately, the deep nature of thefriendship between Tori and Lokita in this solitary exile brings heart to this social, humanist and militant film, as in all the works of the Belgian brothers. A false brotherhood, true love, carried by the revelation Pablo Schils, a resourceful little genius who transpires courage and benevolence for his sister of heart and who, in his monotone voice, states with pragmatism truths, advice, good words and comfort.
October 2024 cinema releases: films showing and opening times near you
Good news for cinephiles! October is full of surprises in theaters! We take a look at the cinema releases for October 2024! [Read more]
October 2024 cinema releases: films showing and opening times near you
