l'enfant

The fictional film work of the Dardenne brothers is a direct trajectory of their years of documentaries. Inheritors of the neo-realist stylings, they have become critically acclaimed at Cannes and other international festivals. Their new film, The Kid With A Bike, recently played the current New York Film Festival. Utilizing the sparest of production designs, no music, and mostly hand-held camera work that accompanies the protagonists wherever they go, their stories of morally compromised youth acutely observed in their quiet desperation are compelling and authentic.

L'enfant especially presents us with children playing, killing time, refusing to join a society that doesn't want to make room for them, but reluctantly assuming adult responsibilities of raising their own children. They sleep in abandoned garages or riverfront warehouses, and traverse a landscape of no mans land terrain between the places the privileged classes inhabit. Dardenne characters struggle to find their way in less than ideal circumstances, pushed by economic realities over which they have no real influence.