La promesse

Igor (15) divides his time between building a go-cart with his friends and working for his father’s building firm that runs on illegal immigrants. His father’s illegal deals are part of everyday life for Igor and he doesn’t have any moral misgivings about it. On the day that the immigration authorities visit the building site, Igor loses his youthful innocence. When he tells the labourers to leave in a hurry, the illegal African immigrant Hamidou falls off the scaffolding. Just before he dies, he asks Igor if he will look after his wife Assita and child Tiga. Igor promises, without telling his father anything about it. Tornapart by his fear, respect for his father and the promise he has made, Igor is forced to make important choices.Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne: ‘We shot in a rough way, trying to capture moments of reality that we would have missed if we’d stuck to our screenplay. We chose actors and actresses who were primarily bodies, faces… Unknown and non-professional actors and actresses to reach the “documentary” truth we were after…’ The Dardenne brothers’ documentary background does show through in their third feature. This modest and impressive father-son drama is shown realistically and intimately, with a good eye for the drabness of life on the fringes of the Belgian city of Liège.