La promesse (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

Great film!

Belgium documentary film makers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne deliver an unflinching glimpse into the horrors and exploitation of undocumented workers and the opportunistic people who prey on them in order to improve their own sordid, wretched lives. The directors also have an amazing eye for casting as all the actors are so natural that you think you are watching a documentary, rather than a compassionate piece of fiction.The heart and soul of the piece is Igor portrayed by a stunning looking fifteen year old Jérémie Rénier ( Summer Hours (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray ]) in an amazing first performance. Every good story needs a great villain and here it supplied by Igor's father Roger in a bravura performance by Olivier Gourmet ( Rosetta [Region 2 Import - Non USA Format ]). The lying, cheating, brutal Roger exploits everyone near him and even though he loves him, poor Igor is no exception.The motherless boy has been pulled out of school under the pretense of an apprenticeship so his dad can use him to help run the family business of human trafficking. Absent of any moral teachings or decent role model, Igor is no angel himself:an expert forger of fake identities, purse snatcher, and lying to immigration officers. However, he is still a mechanically inclined 12 year old who snatches a few precious minutes to work on a motorized soap box type car with his friends and paints his dingy teeth with white-out to mimic the dazzling smiles of the Africans whose passports he is altering.Igor is placed in an almost untenable position when he "promises" to care for the wife and child of a dying African man under his supervision. This promise causes an almost spiritual awakening in our young protagonist and forces him to make difficult moral choices for the first time in his own exploited life. Sadly, the film ends on a very ambiguous note but one hopes the protagonist will have a better, more hopeful future due to living up to his word.

We played La Promesse for our film society on a dark and snowy night. The response was sensational. Thinking people really seem to like this film; perhaps the straight-forward, no comments narrative allows us viewers to form our own opinions. This is a tough subject, told in a hard style, but it has the redemptive punch of the most hopeful Bressons (think Pickpocket or Women of the Boulogne Woods). The performance by Jeremie Renier is up there with anything Roddy McDowell did as a young actor; Olivier Gourmet is terrific in the ambiguity he brings to his role as the boy's father. In a very quiet and non-preachy way, this film talks to the future of Europe, the question of whether morality matters in a free market world, and the ties that family arouses in most of us. This is a great movie that sounds like it will be a drag. If you like this, look at Rosetta; you have probably already seen L'Enfant. If you're not a foreign language film buff, give it a try if you like Paul Shraeder at his most hopeful (American Gigolo; Light Sleeper) or John Boorman at his most idealistic (Beyond Rangoon; Emerald Forest). This will not disappoint you.

A brutal world with a bright spark of a teenager. This is one of the first films of the Dardenne brothers, who mostly portray the conditions in an economically depressed region of French speaking Belgium, around the city of Seraing. Their movies have won multiple prices in Cannes.In this case it revolves around the brutal treatment of often defenseless undocumented immigrants. A father and son team in the construction business mostly using such immigrants. In one instance a gruesome treatment of one father, and the consequences for his just arrived wife and child from Africa. In spite of his usually unquestioned obedience to his father, the son, feeling bound by a promise he made, revolts at the last moments of the film and leaves us with a sense of hope for the victims, although certainly still uncertain future.

A powerful movie on a difficult subject. I recently showed this to my French class because of the immigration topic, but it is so much more! Along the way the young Igor finds redemption for a life that has been less than honest. It is definitely one that will get the students talking and thinking about our global issues, the human condition! My first class to view it completely erupted in an uproar at the ending, perfect for a discussion on the issues. As a teacher, I highly recommend this movie to all French and sociology/psychology teachers out there! And anyone else wanting to present a more realistic world view!

Superb coming of age film in which a pause, driven by rising consciousness, leads a young boy to develop conflicts with his father, and to engage in autonomous decision-making of right over wrong. The film is devoid of sentimentalism or saccharine actions. Reminds of Jerzy Grotowski's poor theater in which the set is stripped of ornamentation. The camera is always moving, keeping close contact with the diverse characters. Great film with impeccable acting and directing.

Really good film from Belgium. A good real slice of life look at the real life of not only immigrants in the 90s from Eastern Europe and Africa but a Father and sons life and the moral choices one makes in bad circumstances. Great acting and a breath of fresh air to see a movie made about real life and how people deal with it, (instead of all these cartoon movies they make these days)

I,like this movie,even thought I throught it was sad.It delt with people who come from third world countries,looking for a better life.But instead are taken advantage of.All their life they have been used by the western nations.Exploted for resources and low paying jobs.

Will now end up paying return fee charges. Don’t buy this.

In their movies, the brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne have addressed some of the most distressing social and human problems in Europe. La promesse was filmed in 1996, years before repeated tragedies have exposed to the public the horror of human trafficking. The action takes place in Liege (Belgium), once a vibrant industrial city, and now part of the devastated rust belt of Southern Belgium. Roger and his “son” Igor run a successful operation of human trafficking exploiting the illegals that they bring across the border. One can feel compassion and anger when watching the exploitation of defenseless people forced to live in the most squalid conditions. Roger has no scruple and will do anything, including the murder of a wounded illegal Amadou, to protect his racket. This movie exposes the vilest sides of human in Roger the trafficker. But Igor, moved by the distress of Assita (Amadou’s widow) and her baby, can no longer accept the consequences of his actions. He ultimately redeems himself by rescuing Assita from Roger’s machinations and confessing the truth to her. A must see movie!

Filmed in and around the French speaking region of Wallonia in Belgium, La Promesse is the story of a single dad, Roger, and his 15 year old son Igor, as they use whatever means available to maintain and keep their apartment building filled with paying tenants. When Hamidou, an illegal labourer from Burkina Faso, falls from a scaffold while working on the building and dies shortly after, Igor promises him that he will take care of the man's wife and baby. What follows is the journey Igor takes to keep his word, despite the misgivings of his father.Shot in what was at the time a unique film style, the film-makers themselves ensured the director of photography they would put a disclaimer that it was shot in "The Dardenne's Style" so as to not blemish the DOP's career. In the end, he was happy with how it turned out, as the free floating, quick panning, hand-held style has now been adopted as the deriguer style in all manner of today's films. This fact is revealed by the Dardenne's themselves in the interview included in the Criterion supplements.This is an incredible piece of story telling. The raw visuals of a city in transition combines perfectly with Igor and his struggle as he is being pulled in two directions. He has been given no moral guidance from his father, and is left to his own devices to choose between right and wrong. He does his best to make good on his promise, and at the same time keep some sort of allegiance to the family business.While not a necessarily happy or cheerful film, La Promesse is very documentarial in its approach. Definitely worth a viewing, as it ranks amongst the best of the best contemporary European films.

Ci sono tutti gli elementi che caratterizzano le opera dei fratelli Dardenne. Un film diretto e duro, senza un finale preciso, ma con una libera interpretazione dello spettatore

Comment imaginer avec les premières séquences jusqu'où ce film va nous emmener? C'est tellement saugrenu, tellement inattendu, tellement il va loin dans l'abjection avec ce père ambivalent et si peu conventionnel! Mais l'histoire va vite, elle s'emballe,il faut gérer le quotidien dans l'urgence. Le jeune garçon "si bien élevé" par un père dont il porte l'empreinte va prendre conscience du sens moral et apprendre à discerner par lui-même le bien du mal. C'est là tout l'enjeu de son parcours chaotique jusqu'à la conquête de son intégrité. Quitte à perdre ce qu'il avait de plus précieux, son père. Un conte moral comme on n'en fait plus.