LE SILENCE DE LORNA

Lorna, a young woman from Kosovo, is finally in possession of the Belgian passport that was the only reason she married the junkie Claudie. And now the people-trafficking ring that smuggled her into Belgium wants her to marry a Russian who’s ready to pay a lot of money in order to stay in the West. It’s the kind of break Lorna needs if she and her boyfriend Sokol are ever going to open the snack bar she dreams about. The only problem is that Claudie would need to die of an overdose first.

Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the Belgian brothers whose interest in the life of immigrants and the socially marginalised has been evident since their international breakthrough with LA PROMESSE, now portray a young woman from Eastern Europe. Arta Dobroshi plays Lorna, a woman as strong as she is headstrong. Her silence puts Claudie’s life at risk, but she slowly begins to rebel against the syndicate on which she depends. As always, the Dardennes’ figures are plausibly rooted in their social milieu, the players impressive, and the film incredibly gripping. There are few other contemporary European filmmakers who pose such lucid questions in regard to guilt and atonement, to the value of labour and money, yet deliver films so thoughtful and touching at the same time. And once again – by now it is almost a tradition – with one film they have internationally established a new actress: Arta Dobroshi, who originally came from Kosovo.