THE PROMISE

| 1996 – 93′ –  A Great Britain/France/Belgium Co-Production. Drama, Classic, Co-Produced by France,
Written by: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne.
Directed by: Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne.
Starring: Jean-Michel Balthazar, Sophie Leboutte, Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Rasmané Ouédraogo, Assita Ouedraogo, Frédéric Bodson.
Official Selections Director’s Fortnight – Cannes International Film Festival 1996, César Award Nomination for Best Foreign Film 1997.
In French with English subtitles.
A New Yorker Films / The Criterion Collection release. |

Igor (Jérémie Renier) is fifteen. He’s an apprentice mechanic, a karting fan and above all his father Roger’s son, involved, with him, in an illegal immigration racket. Igor takes to his father’s scams with natural verve and innocence, not asking too many questions. Yet, one day because of a promise made Igor is forced to choose. Can he come clean without betraying his father? The breakthrough feature from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne is a brilliantly economical and observant tale of a boy’s troubled moral awakening. Filmed in their industrial hometown of Seraing, Belgium, the brothers bring an unerring eye for detail and a deep compassion for those on society’s lowest rungs to this absorbing drama. 

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