Tori and Lokita (2022)
(Tori et Lokita)
Country: BEL/FR
Technical: col 88m
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast: Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj
Synopsis:
Boy and girl migrants from Bénin, posing as siblings the better to obtain papers, nevertheless are forced to work for drug dealers in order to repay the people smugglers and send money back home. When the older girl agrees to work in isolation at a drug farm, their mutually dependent existence comes under stress, with tragic results.
Review:
The by now familiar pared down method (planned sequence shots, close-up follow shots of the main characters) can be painstaking in its effect, but there is no denying the commitment of the young actors or the informative exposé of a system of exploitation itself facilitated by understandable procedures and safeguards. The crucial attachment between this quasi-adoptive mother and child loses something in the omission of their formative experiences, which we take on trust, and the concentration on their final weeks together; the epilogue is perfunctory and begs its own questions, as does an earlier hole in the plotting. Nevertheless, this is typically engaged film making with a humanist payload few will quibble over.
(Tori et Lokita)
Country: BEL/FR
Technical: col 88m
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast: Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj
Synopsis:
Boy and girl migrants from Bénin, posing as siblings the better to obtain papers, nevertheless are forced to work for drug dealers in order to repay the people smugglers and send money back home. When the older girl agrees to work in isolation at a drug farm, their mutually dependent existence comes under stress, with tragic results.
Review:
The by now familiar pared down method (planned sequence shots, close-up follow shots of the main characters) can be painstaking in its effect, but there is no denying the commitment of the young actors or the informative exposé of a system of exploitation itself facilitated by understandable procedures and safeguards. The crucial attachment between this quasi-adoptive mother and child loses something in the omission of their formative experiences, which we take on trust, and the concentration on their final weeks together; the epilogue is perfunctory and begs its own questions, as does an earlier hole in the plotting. Nevertheless, this is typically engaged film making with a humanist payload few will quibble over.
(Tori et Lokita)
Country: BEL/FR
Technical: col 88m
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast: Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj
Synopsis:
Boy and girl migrants from Bénin, posing as siblings the better to obtain papers, nevertheless are forced to work for drug dealers in order to repay the people smugglers and send money back home. When the older girl agrees to work in isolation at a drug farm, their mutually dependent existence comes under stress, with tragic results.
Review:
The by now familiar pared down method (planned sequence shots, close-up follow shots of the main characters) can be painstaking in its effect, but there is no denying the commitment of the young actors or the informative exposé of a system of exploitation itself facilitated by understandable procedures and safeguards. The crucial attachment between this quasi-adoptive mother and child loses something in the omission of their formative experiences, which we take on trust, and the concentration on their final weeks together; the epilogue is perfunctory and begs its own questions, as does an earlier hole in the plotting. Nevertheless, this is typically engaged film making with a humanist payload few will quibble over.