Igor is a fifteen-year old kid who, in some ways, is like most teenagers his age. He likes to have fun hanging out with friends, ride his moped around and work on customizing his go-kart in his spare time. The problem is he doesn’t have much spare time. He works as a mechanic’s apprentice at a gas station but even those hours are cut short by his demanding father Roger, who needs him constantly for jobs involving building renovations, money collection and other activities related to Roger’s exploitation of illegal immigrants. Because of this, Igor has had to grow up fast with his multiple adult responsibilities but he likes the money he makes and the trust his father has placed in him. All of this is about to change when he becomes friendly with Assita, who has arrived with her newborn baby to join her husband, a West African man who does work for Roger. This is the basic set-up for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s La Promesse (The Promise), a groundbreaking 1996 film for the brother filmmaking team about the brutal trafficking and mistreatment of undocumented immigrants in Belgium. It also serves as a stark but moving coming-of-age film.
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Cinema Sojourns 