Bleak in Belgium

The Dardenne brothers return in feel-bad
force with the somber but rewarding
drama Le Silence de Lorna

FASCINATING DESPERATION: Le Silence de Lorna

by MALCOLM FRASER

Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have been turning out their particular brand of cinema—minimal, naturalistic and bleak drama—since 1987, including the Cannes Palme d’Or winners Rosetta (1999) and L’Enfant (2005). Their latest, Le Silence de Lorna, is certainly no departure from their patented style, but it’s delivered with their usual rigour and unsentimental gaze.

Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is an Albanian woman living in the Belgian city of Liège. She has plans to open a snack bar with her boyfriend Sokol (Alban Ukaj), but they need some capital. She lives with Claudy (Jérémie Renier), a junkie trying desperately to kick, who she treats with a mixture of tough love, tenderness and fraying patience. We soon find out that she’s also mixed up in a nasty scheme with Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione), a cab driver who also brokers arranged marriages through the Russian mob for Eastern Europeans to get EU citizenship in Belgium.

To reveal more would be unfair, as the grand scheme of the plot is only revealed in bits and pieces over the course of the film. Suffice to say that Dobroshi tries to retain her humanity as she’s dragged deeper into an underworld mentality where money trumps morality every time.

As in the Dardennes’ previous films, the ways that financial desperation can drive people beyond moral boundaries weighs heavily as a theme. There’s also a fascinating glimpse at the multicultural, border-hopping world of contemporary Europe. The Dardennes’ decidedly tragic perspective, matched by a somber aesthetic (with Dobroshi’s Eurotrash wardrobe a darkly ironic splash of colour in the film’s muted palette) is a reality-check corrective to the colourful, money-drenched fantasies coming out of Paris (not to mention Hollywood).

Dobroshi is quite compelling in the title role. Just as the film plays its narrative cards close to its chest, her performance is a showcase of restrained emotion and hidden motivation. The Dardennes’ less-is-more style isn’t for all tastes, but contrary to initial appearances, this is far from your run-of-the-mill European art film where nothing much happens. They clearly know what they’re doing, and if you give yourself over to their particular method of suspense, your patience will be rewarded.

LE SILENCE DE LORNA OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, FEB. 6