Some of you may have seen the Dardennes brothers 2011 film "The Kid with a Bike," which starred Jérémie Renier as the father of a disturbed 12 year old whom he abandons. In the Dardennes brothers first significant (1996) feature, La Promesse, you can see Renier as the troubled 15 year old protagonist, Igor, who shines in his initial foray into the feature film landscape.
Shot in a gritty cinema verité style significantly without music, La Promesse chronicles the unhealthy relationship between Igor and an amoral father, Roger (Oliver Gourmet). Roger proves to be cannily drawn, a bad man who is still fleshed out with some sympathetic characteristics. Despite beating Igor at times, the point is made that he still cares for the boy (in his own half-assed way).
Roger houses immigrants but also exploits them by overcharging for rent and undercharging their pay. When Amidou, an immigrant from Burkina Faso and one of Roger's construction workers, falls off a scaffold, Igor tries to save the man by applying a tourniquet to his bleeding leg. Roger, fearing that he'll be discovered by government inspectors, throws the tourniquet away, allowing the man to bleed to death. To add insult to injury, he dumps the body right at the construction site and covers the corpse with cement. Before Roger arrives on the scene, Igor promises the dying man that he'll take care of his wife, Assita (Assita Ouedraogo) and her infant child.
At the beginning of the film, Igor is introduced as a juvenile delinquent of sorts, who steals money from a woman while working part-time at a service station. The promise turns the boy into a responsible citizen as he ends up trying to help Assita after the husband's disappearance. The uncaring Roger even goes so far as paying a man to scare Assita into leaving by attempting to rape her (the subterfuge involves Roger pretending to scare the man off before he actually commits the crime). It gets worse when Roger creates a fake telegram which is delivered to Assita, falsely claiming Amidou is in Germany and wants her to meet him there. Only Igor's last minute intervention prevents Roger from delivering the beleaguered widow into the hands of sex traffickers. Assita is effectively drawn as she's not a complete goody two-shoes. There is a disturbing scene of animal sacrifice (a rooster is sliced up as part of her rituals) and later she has a breakdown, accusing Igor of infecting her child with some sort of disease. Fortunately Assita comes to her senses and they bring the child to a hospital for treatment. There, a sympathetic nurse allows Assita to use her identity papers so she can leave the country to live with a family member. There is a harrowing scene at the climax where Roger catches up to Igor at the service station where he used to work, with the boy preventing the father from chasing after them by clamping a chain to his leg.
All of this is pretty gripping but a bit predictable in the end as Igor is committed to helping the woman. Igor's confession is indeed satisfying but the Dardennes brothers abruptly break things off and keep us guessing as to what the consequences are of Assita finding out her husband is dead. Does she go to the police? Does Roger prevent her from acting or pay her off? Does Assita finally turn around and indeed move in with a family members in another country? What does Roger do to Igor? The Dardennes brothers wish to leave things to our imagination-not sure that is the best tack to take here as the story sort of demands more of a conclusive denouement.
La Promesse is indeed a gritty portrait of a disturbed father-son relationship as well as a damning chronicle of the exploitation of immigrants by unscrupulous men whose desire for monetary profit outweighs any humanitarian concerns.
Shot in a gritty cinema verité style significantly without music, La Promesse chronicles the unhealthy relationship between Igor and an amoral father, Roger (Oliver Gourmet). Roger proves to be cannily drawn, a bad man who is still fleshed out with some sympathetic characteristics. Despite beating Igor at times, the point is made that he still cares for the boy (in his own half-assed way).
Roger houses immigrants but also exploits them by overcharging for rent and undercharging their pay. When Amidou, an immigrant from Burkina Faso and one of Roger's construction workers, falls off a scaffold, Igor tries to save the man by applying a tourniquet to his bleeding leg. Roger, fearing that he'll be discovered by government inspectors, throws the tourniquet away, allowing the man to bleed to death. To add insult to injury, he dumps the body right at the construction site and covers the corpse with cement. Before Roger arrives on the scene, Igor promises the dying man that he'll take care of his wife, Assita (Assita Ouedraogo) and her infant child.
At the beginning of the film, Igor is introduced as a juvenile delinquent of sorts, who steals money from a woman while working part-time at a service station. The promise turns the boy into a responsible citizen as he ends up trying to help Assita after the husband's disappearance. The uncaring Roger even goes so far as paying a man to scare Assita into leaving by attempting to rape her (the subterfuge involves Roger pretending to scare the man off before he actually commits the crime). It gets worse when Roger creates a fake telegram which is delivered to Assita, falsely claiming Amidou is in Germany and wants her to meet him there. Only Igor's last minute intervention prevents Roger from delivering the beleaguered widow into the hands of sex traffickers. Assita is effectively drawn as she's not a complete goody two-shoes. There is a disturbing scene of animal sacrifice (a rooster is sliced up as part of her rituals) and later she has a breakdown, accusing Igor of infecting her child with some sort of disease. Fortunately Assita comes to her senses and they bring the child to a hospital for treatment. There, a sympathetic nurse allows Assita to use her identity papers so she can leave the country to live with a family member. There is a harrowing scene at the climax where Roger catches up to Igor at the service station where he used to work, with the boy preventing the father from chasing after them by clamping a chain to his leg.
All of this is pretty gripping but a bit predictable in the end as Igor is committed to helping the woman. Igor's confession is indeed satisfying but the Dardennes brothers abruptly break things off and keep us guessing as to what the consequences are of Assita finding out her husband is dead. Does she go to the police? Does Roger prevent her from acting or pay her off? Does Assita finally turn around and indeed move in with a family members in another country? What does Roger do to Igor? The Dardennes brothers wish to leave things to our imagination-not sure that is the best tack to take here as the story sort of demands more of a conclusive denouement.
La Promesse is indeed a gritty portrait of a disturbed father-son relationship as well as a damning chronicle of the exploitation of immigrants by unscrupulous men whose desire for monetary profit outweighs any humanitarian concerns.