User reviews

The movie brilliantly immerses itself in the details of running an illegal immigrant business (excellent scenes of the interchange of money; petty extortion; the miserable compromises and requests of the immigrants), from which the black couple and child gradually emerge as a sort of beacon of hope because of the gracious simplicity of their rituals in their horrible hovel. The movie avoids sentimentality or overt analysis - it s a highly respectful portrait of tumultuous actions in a very specific, eye-openingly grim sector of low life. The boy's relationship with the father is satisfyingly rounded - accommodating obvious mutual affection despite the outbursts of violence and the terrible paternal example set overall - and the portrayal of the woman is culturally precise and fascinating. A fine film, balancing enormous relevance with proper mystery.

After ten years of directing documentaries the Dardenne brothers directed their first fictional film, Falsch (1987). In 1992 they finished their second one, Je pense à vous (I Think About You) which they didn't think as a good film. After four years, came their first real "Dardenne-film" The Promise. It was the first film where they found their own unique style. The Promise is a story of a father son relationship, which they had already dealt with in Falsch.

Roger (Olivier Gourmet), with his 15-year-old son Igor (Jérémie Renier), drives across industrial Belgium to get illegal immigrants from a truck. They bring them back to a block of flats they live in and start charging them for money. One of the immigrants is Assita who has come to Belgium with her husband to find a better future for them and their baby. One day when immigrant-inspectors pay a visit events start to have radical consequences.

The films by the Dardenne brothers usually focus on the moral choices the characters have to make and what are the consequences. In The Promise Igor has to decide, whether to obey his father or to do what's right and help Assita. Then we get to the question what is the right thing to do? And this is what Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne want to do: let us observe and think. Luc Dardenne has said that the basic idea of film-making is to reconstruct new humane experiences. The Promise makes one think about these moral dilemmas and social issues but also associate the events with one's own life.

Geographically Belgium is in between of Germany and France - Belgium is only a country for trespassing. For instance a harsh example; Hitler in WWII. This is the main theme of The Promise - it is a story of trespassing. For Assita Belgium is a metaphor of a certain state in life, which she is just passing by. No one stays in Belgium (or in that state of life).

As is Assita in between of two worlds; her home country and Belgium, so is Igor. Igor feels himself grown-up when he's collecting taxes for his father and driving around Belgium. But on the other hand he's full of juvenile joy as he drives with his friends on a go-kart. Igor was played by Jérémie Renier (L 'Enfant, Lorna's Silence). It was his first role and through that he brought a realistic life to the character who tries to free himself from the chains of his father - the brothers have always appreciated the idea of using amateur actors. Igor's father, Roger was played by the Golden Palm-winner Olivier Gourmet, who is in my opinion a very talented actor. He gives a great life to Roger, whose world is worthless and merciless.

The Dardenne brothers were raised in an industrial town in Belgium, which is the milieu in all of their films. The sound scape is something that one should pay attention to. There's no musical score at all only the voices the characters hear, the voices of an industrial town - ambiance. In the end the industrial voices just keep going on as the credits come on the screen. It's like we can't handle them anymore, they're spreading off the screen. A bit like in Chaplin's City Lights.

The minimalist style of The Promise is amazing. It's touching on a new level. The brothers have totally succeed in their mission to create new humane experiences. Luc Dardenne writes in his 'diary' Behind Our Pictures, that the more you take material away the closer you get to the humane emotions, which he achieves through the severe aesthetics, minimalism and ruthless sound scape.

Faces are in an important role, when describing humane emotions in The Promise the faces have also a dramaturgical role. I'm going to quote Luc Dardenne here, translated in English: "In every scene with Igor and Assita where they look to each other, Igor is always the first to turn his head away. Igor isn't able to meet Assita's eyes, because he senses a moral command that he cannot reply. Except in the final scene." And what a redemption it is in the end. The meaning of facial expressions and the philosophy behind it comes from a French philosopher Emmanuel Lévinas, who both of the brothers admire and from whom they get background for their philosophy of film.

The Promise is thinking - philosophy of film. The brothers have stabilized film as an instrument for philosophy. I hope that the true film fanatics get to see this and appreciate it as much as I do. In addition to its themes of change, father-son relationship and trespassing, The Promise challenges the viewer to think on its own. The brothers force us to meet the moral choices out there.

One of the most amazing movies I've ever seen. The story take place in the quite ugly "all grey" suburbs of a belgian city and is about illegal emigrant workers.

Absolutely no music, just simple human emotion...

It shows the talent of belgian movie scene (here the Dardenne brothers) who make superb movies with ridiculously small budgets.

Check out their amazing new movie "Rosetta" who won the "Palme d'Or" at 99' Cannes film festival.

La Promesse is one of the best films of this decade. With its simple style and character-driven plot, one may think that the film comes from one of the Dogma 95 manifesto directors but it doesn't. The film's strengths lie in its theme of morality and responsibility and in its no-nonsense portrayal of the immigrant situation in Belgium (with reverberations reaching all across Europe). One can say that it's a coming-of-age tale--and in some ways it is--but when one thinks of the usual film categorized as such, the moniker doesn't match. Even the scene where Igor is being seduced by an older woman, while his father and his father's girlfriend look on, has no follow-up, no clumsy bedroom scene where we see Igor lose his virginity. The film makers just cut from the seduction scene in the bar to Igor the next morning back to his "job" at the dilapidated building site. Clearly, the directors are unconcerned with the staples of the "coming-of-age" genre. More precisely, I think it should be called a "coming-of-conscience" film. The final scene is at the same time heartbreaking and thought-provoking. The way they end the movie is a masterstroke because it forces the viewer to ponder what will come next, thus prompting self-reflective questions on what the viewer himself or herself would have chosen to do.

"La Promesse", from the makers of "Rosetta", is an award winning drama which gets down to business quickly. The film is shot with no frills and the hard edge of a documentary. It tells of a father and son, both of questionable character, who make their living on the backs of transient illegal aliens in Belgium and the schism which developes between them as they engage a serious matter of conscience. Viewers with an appetite for reality in film will extol this flick while fantasy lovers may hate its grit.

Brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne concern themselves with creating films that put realism on the screen without using artifice or cinematic trickery to distract the audience from the socially aware message at the core of their narratives. Unlike the similarly themed dogme movement, or the more iconic works of Lars von Trier etc, the Dardenne brothers are unconcerned with changing the face of cinematic reality, but rather, take their cue from people like Ken Loach, Bruno Dumont and Robert Bresson; by creating honest, often-bleak works of film that take their character from despair, to hope, and sometimes, right back to despair, in order to give the audience a taste of a world away from the more comfortable social milieu we might be accustomed to. The concept could be read as hypocritical admittedly, and although the occasional heavy-handed quality of the brother's work does intermittently become preachy, there is ample opportunity to deliver some moments of earth-shattering drama.

I first encountered the Dardenne's work back in 2001, when British film channel Film Four premiered their film The Promise (1996) in preparation for the premier of their highly acclaimed follow up film Rosetta (1999). Both films are here are heavily indebted to the naturalistic/realist work of Bresson and Loach, particularly films like Diary of a Country Priest (1951), Riff Raff (1990) and Raining Stones (1993); with the filmmakers presenting the viewer with a series of characters continually forced to the brink of despair, but desperate to pull themselves back. For me, out of the two films of theirs that I have thus far seen, The Promise is the one that makes the greatest impact. Here, The Dardenne's create a world that isn't a million miles away from the current social climate in the UK, with building sites, smoky pubs and migrant workers peppering what is essentially the typical rites-of-passage/coming of age movie so familiar even by Hollywood standards. The brothers rest their narrative firmly on the shoulders of young newcomer Jérémie Rénier as Igor, a teenage tearaway forced into looking after a young black mother and her baby following the death of the woman's husband whilst working for the company run by Igor's father.

The brothers season their film with an abundance of topical, moralistic issues such as the passage into adulthood, immigration and domestic abuse, but at the centre of the drama there is still room for hope in the touching father son relationship between Igor and his disparate dad (played here by award winning actor and regular Dardenne collaborator Olivier Gourmet). The Promise might not be a ground-breaking film; its ideas are well worn and its scenarios familiar from the classic kitchen-sink cinema of films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and A Taste of Honey (1961) to name only two, but the process of refinement that the brothers are able to create with the subtle shading of characters and the no-nonsense approach to film-making is really quite affecting on the most personal and emotional of levels.

LA PROMESSE is a coming of age story of sorts. The young teenaged protagonist works for his father, who loves him deeply. The father is sleazy exploiter of illegal aliens, and the boy is learning the trade of preying on the defenseless of society that includes theft from the elderly and extortion from the immigrants. And it seems to be suiting him just fine until he helps his father cover up a fatal accident at his construction site. The accident that did not have to be fatal, but the father does not want to risk the scrutiny of the authorities. The boy promises the dying immigrant that he will take care of the man's wife and baby. Slowly the youth begins to question his and his father's morality.

Shot in a documentary style without music score, the urban Antwerp setting as well as the story are uniformly gray and grim. Nonetheless this is an excellent film that tells a terrific moral tale to which there are no easy answers. An excellent rental.

The performance of Jérémie Renier is memorable. (He's also great in L'infant). The Dardennes are obviously influenced by Robert Bresson and have a similar interest in use of realistic sound, and observation of everyday tasks. They especially like workshops, and woodworking tools. Like Bresson, they eschew incidental music and produce a very naturalistic view of events. And they do it so well. This film will remain in your conscience for a long time after you have seen it, and should satisfy those who need a resolution and a conclusion in their movies, by offering at least an answer to one "will he - won't he?" dilemma.

These guys are making some of the best cinema of the present era.

The brothers Dardenne understand how to tell a story without narration. The characters in this movie are strong enough to develop their own lines and short dialogues without commentary. There is no music or sound. The problem of this movie is apparent to "Baran (2001)" but in a different context and country. The style is near to "La Vie de Jésus (1997)" by Bruno Dumont and the hardness of life close to "Seul contre Tous (1998)" by Gaspar Noé. Those last two movies have something more in common: they are situated in the old industrial country of the north of France and the south of Belgium. One could explore a stylistic nearness to Ken Loach but the narration goes deeper. It is the sole existence of mankind who is put into question. Father, why do we live? Igor (Jérémie Rénier) seems to ask continuously to his father Roger (Olivier Gourmet). This film is a good attempt to make something as Belgian social realism without a parade or a revolution by the workers. They seem now to be more isolated (some exception: "Fermeture des usines Renault à Vilvoorde (1998))" and confined to villages with a non-existing working-class. The unemployed seem to have replaced the workers. A strange situation happens when Assita goes to a clairvoyant to know what happened with Amadou and the answer will be as cryptic as the situation wherein she is. Is the promise that Igor made (in fact it was his father) so important? The movie seems to suggest that a 14-year old boy could change the situation and ameliorate the fate of Assita. The real problem is that illegal immigration is a crime that has many consequences and at least it creates innumerable problems when something happens and it is a waste for the society and what more is, it puts the illegal workers into great danger because they come into the hands of people without conscience or humanity.

What a fabulous actor Jérémie Renier is! He IS this movie, and while watching you can't take your eyes off of him. A riveting performance for such a young actor. More of him, please--more, more! One of the finest movies I've seen in ages.

A promise. What does that word mean to you? How far would you go to keep a promise you made to someone? Would you betray someone close to you to keep that promise? 'La Promesse' is a brilliant debut by the Belgian duo, Dardenne brothers, showing a 15-year old boy's brave efforts to keep his promise. The movie is about morality and responsibility. It's easy for one to blame their bad upbringing or company for their immoral ways, but it takes real courage and a good conscience to rise above those ways and become a better human being.

With hand-held cameras, simple narrative, inexperienced actors and no background score, Dardenne brothers' bold approach is quite refreshing and realistic; they place us right there, in suburban Belgium, where the story is unfolding. The story is stirring, and the acting is quite incredible, especially by Jeremie Renier; their eyes speak a lot.

I liked the way they handled superstitions and rituals related to it; it was darkly amusing.

The final scene is quite uplifting and heartbreaking. I loved the way they ended the movie; it keeps you pondering over a few things.

Even though nothing about this film stuck out to me as great, it was still a solid film that I enjoyed very much. Igor, Roger, and Assita made for a memorable trio of characters who carried the movie really well. As others have noted, Roger borders on being a villain from beginning to end. In the second half, he obviously causes problems, but his behavior is spotty even before that as well. There are several scenes throughout the film where he shows abuse, creepiness, and love towards Igor. For instance, after he beats his son for giving away a lot of money to someone else, he laughs it off and tells his son he loves him, jokes about him getting laid, and brings him to a bar where an older woman flirts with him. The impression you get is that, while he isn't a bad person per se, some of his parenting choices are questionable and he might not be the best choice of a guardian for Igor. He doesn't quite cross the line into awfulness though. Assita is also memorable as she shows a certain level of distrust towards Igor throughout most of the film. She threatens him with a knife, tries to get rid of him at a couple points, and frequently asks Igor if he's hiding anything from her. It's clear she has experienced a lot of abuse/betrayal from those around her and, as a result, finds it hard to place her full trust in anyone. As for Igor, he may seem somewhat one dimensional on the surface, but a few things can be said about his character as well. He doesn't go to school, struggles to maintain a job due to the demands of being a human smuggler, and doesn't seem to have a future outside of taking over his father's profession. In terms of his personality, he seems somewhat blank in contrast to the other two characters, but I think he acts as a cypher for the audience. Since he's one of the only people in the film who help Assita, he's the one you may relate to the most. I also enjoyed how his morals weren't of a black and white level of nobility as, while he has good intentions, the details he hides from Assita throughout the film make his process of carrying out his goal questionable. Outside of these three characters, I don't know that there's a whole lot else for me to dig at, but there were a couple small takeaways here and there I enjoyed. Illegal immigration is a big political issue and it would've been easy for the film to feel preachy at convincing you to support one side or the other. However, I appreciated that it didn't get into the political arguments of either side and simply showed you their plight and their day-to-day activities as this was more than enough to invest me into the film. Aside from this, however, the three characters I discussed up above were my main selling points for this film. They were, of course, very well-realized and the payoffs to their arcs were good enough so that I wasn't left thinking the film was missing something. So yeah, I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It has a few things on its mind and does a lot with them.

Igor's father Roger rents his ramshackle flats to illegal immigrants as part of an organized smuggling operation. His exploitation includes offering some with reduced rent to work construction on his building. When inspectors come for a surprise visit, an illegal worker falls to his death. With his dying breath, the worker asks Igor to care for his baby and wife Assita. Igor helps his father hide the dead body. Roger intends to trick Assita but Igor intervenes.

Jérémie Renier is a newcomer teenager here. The role is terribly juicy. He tries his best but he may not be prepared. Also Assita Ouedraogo may not be a professional actress but she does have a realism. This is a devastating story. The Dardenne brothers bring a documentary realism. At the same time, they don't necessarily have the skills to bring out superior acting from their actors.

Dear CineBuffs,

This is an incredible tale of a 15 Year Old Boy street smart ways (Grâce à la Père) but somewhere there is a moral side to him that has suddenly upsurged. To me the Hero was this Boy , who has given a wonderful performance and all the characters are very believable ethced by Les Freres Dardenne. They have been able to add warmth to this Film Noir. I sees hope. If you like films by this FIlmmaker one must see the films of Shyam Benegal an Indian FIlm Maker who has made some great Films on Social Issues and Autobiographical FIlms and Dramas.Some of them are Mammo(Memoirs of a Writer's Adolescence) , Bhumika , Documentary on Satyajit Ray and of course his Great Film based on a true story Susman(The Essence) on a Saree Weaver from India.

I loved it. No music, dirty streets, dirty city, great characters... It just felt refreshing. Very new to me and I loved it. Very much.

I tend to think of any film in a foreign language as an 'artsy' movie, and avoid them like the plague. However, I had the good luck to catch "La Promesse" and I might have to change my thinking. The story is the kind that catches your interest quickly and never lets go. The film never adopts a high air...in fact, it's very gritty, which makes it that much more enjoyable. The characters are so believable you might think you're actually watching a documentary. To top it off, the morality play at the heart of the movie is done remarkably well. If you're in the mood for something different, see this movie.

Despite the criminal setting, the human trafficking and what have you, don't be fooled by phrases like "socially relevant". This is pure melodrama. In fact, any soap opera writer would proudly exploit the plot elements of the film.

But what makes it a masterpiece is the absolutely flawless direction. There is not a single scene that is superfluous. Blink and you'll miss an important link in the story.

Behind the apparent simplicity of each scene there is a lot of careful planning. The feelings and actions of the characters are skilfully pointed out for exactly as long as it takes to understand them. The Dardenne brothers are helped by a cast that remains etched in your memory, but I doubt any of the actors would shine this much in a less carefully directed film.

Though released in 1996, oh my goodness "La Promesse" feels like it could be a response to the current events of today.

The film tells the story of a young man who helps his father bring illegal immigrants into Belgium and then proceed to rip them off. When one of the immigrants dies in an accident, the father covers up the death even as the man's wife, recently brought over with their baby to join him, begins to investigate what happened to him. The young man must decide for himself where his own feelings of what is right morally begin and his loyalty and fear of punishment end.

"La Promesse" is a film that puts faces to the abstract idea of illegal immigrants and reminds us that these are people just trying to better their lives in ways that are available to them. I of course know that the many ignorant Americans who slot all immigrants into the same category (terrorists) as an excuse to keep them out of our country would never see a movie like this, but how I wish there was some way to force them to think of immigrants not en masse, but as individual people with personalities, needs, desires, worries, and fears of their own.

Grade: A