La promesse

May 16 1997 Not Rated 1h 30m
Comedy, Drama

Igor, aged 15, and his father Roger deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.

Plot

Igor--a 15-year-old apprentice mechanic--spends his off hours at the beck and call of his father. Igor's father, Roger, is a low-life involved with smuggling undocumented immigrants into Belgium, and acts as their slumlord, housing them in barely livable conditions, and paying them menial wages to work construction on his building (among other scams). When the building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou falls off a scaffold in his hurry to hide, things start to unravel, particularly when Igor makes a promise to the injured Amidou that ultimately exposes the different values of Igor and Roger, and of Amidou's wife, Assita.

Written by

Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Leon Michaux

Directed by

Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Cast

Jérémie Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Assita Ouedraogo

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

Belgium, Luxembourg, Tunisia, France

Production Companies

Touza Productions, RTBF, Les Films du Fleuve, Samsa Film, Eurimages

Languages

Româna, Français

Awards

17 wins & 5 nominations total

Featurettes
La Promesse - Acting for the Dardennes
Scores
# of Votes
8,686
Average Rating
7.7 out of 10
Metascore
82
Popularity
NA