← Back to results
La Promesse
1996 94 min Belgium, Luxembourg, Tunisia 12+
★7.9
Drama
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Trailers
Description
Igor, aged 15, and his father Roger deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.
US Gross:
$592,543
Starring
Jérémie Renier
Actor
Olivier Gourmet
Actor
Assita Ouedraogo
Actor
Awards
César Awards 1997
— Best International Feature Film
Key opinion
La Promesse is widely regarded as a raw, masterfully understated debut that established the Dardenne brothers' signature realist style. While some viewers struggle with the ambiguous motivations of the protagonist, most praise its powerful, tension-filled exploration of moral choice and the loss of childhood innocence.
| Direction | The Dardenne brothers' semi-documentary camera style creates an immersive and authentic atmosphere of marginalization. | |
| Acting | Jérémie Renier delivers a compelling performance as a teenager burdened with adult responsibilities and conflicting moral loyalties. | |
| Theme | The film is a harrowing, tension-filled examination of the brutal moral dilemmas forced upon a child in an exploitative environment. | |
| Pacing | The film's pacing is viewed by some as an effortless, tension-filled experience, while others find the narrative flow and character motivations difficult or frustrating to reconcile. | |
| Screenplay | The protagonist's character arc is considered by some to be a powerful, subtle journey of moral maturation, while others find his motivations and lack of background detail to be underdeveloped or incoherent. |