Lorna’s Silence (Le silence de Lorna)
You
don’t go to a Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne film for a laugh. They are bleak
glances at the underclass in Europe, in particular Belgium and how life for the
poor leads to some alienating experiences.
This time we have Lorna, played by Arta Dobroshi who as an Albanian marries
drug addict Claudy (the excellent Jérémie Renier) 
to get Belgian citizenship
and be able to buy a bar with her boyfriend.
Her marriage is more than she bargained for as Claudy decides to go
clean and clings to her more while at the same time the mafia boss who sets the
deal up wants Claudy out of the scene and Lorna widowed so she can marry a rich
Russian who also wants the Belgian citizenship that she now has and will pay so
she can start her business. Lorna keeps
going until things start to give and her feelings become involved. Can she
avoid this sequence of events or is the only way that she and her absent guest
worker boyfriend can get their dream?
This is a film about the power of money and the price you pay to get
things emotionally as well as physically. And the collusion of the developed
countries and the financial markets in allowing this sort of scenario to arise
and in fact be shockingly common. It may not be their best film but I liked the
way the characters develop during the movie and how we get to change our
opinions about Lorna and Claudy during the story. Dobroshi does a great job in the lead role
and the screenplay and direction maintains the high standards and quiet
strength of the brothers.
*
* * * +
