Review of "Tory and Lokita," a crime drama about African migrants from the Cannes Film Festival
The Dardenne brothers, Europe's foremost humanists, tell a touching story of mutual help in a foreign country.
African children, Lokita (Mbundu Joeli) and Tori (Schils Pablo), came to Belgium in search of a better life. The girl is 15 years old, the boy is 9. Loquita and Tory met on a ship bound for Europe. In order to get a residency permit, they have to prove that they are brother and sister. They don't, but the kids' relationship is too warm, so the adults are willing to believe it. The process drags on, and Tori and Lokita flatly refuse to do a DNA test. To support themselves and send money back home to relatives, the boy and girl get a job at a pizza place that serves as a front for a drug deal.
It is no longer possible to imagine the Festival de Cannes without a new film by the Dardenne brothers. The second film by the tandem, The Promise, was selected for the Directors' Fortnight in 1996. And since 1999, the premieres of the Belgian duo have always been in the main program of the prestigious film festival. "Rosetta" and "The Child" brought the Dardennes the Palme d'Or. No one else has had three, so for the past 15 years or more, Belgian directors have been coming to Cannes as patriarchs of world cinema; they won't get the top prize anyway, but they can't afford not to.
The last two Dardenne films - not the most successful and forced "The Unknown" and "Young Ahmed" (also about the problems of migrants) - made one think that the humanist filmmakers were deflated and no longer have a subtle feeling for the social problems of Belgian society. Were it not for their impeccable reputation, one could even accuse the authors of opportunism and an attempt to satisfy the festival selectors with topical themes. Fortunately, Tory and Loquita proves that the Dardennes are still in good shape.
The filmmakers are well aware of the ethical problem posed by making a film about immigrants. The Dardennes, older, successful European men, had not had to go through the ordeal of Tori and Lokita, so it was important for the filmmakers to immerse themselves in the subject. In preparing for production, the Dardennes spent several years talking to migrant teenagers from Africa and to psychologists and psychiatrists who work in Belgium with people from other countries. The filmmakers say the main characters have several prototypes at once, and the story shown in the film was formed from the stories of migrant children.
If a migrant child is under 18, he or she can be sent to school or placed with a European family. But once they reach adulthood, no one will help the guest. Neither Tori nor Lokita have relatives in Belgium. They each feel lonely and need a family, daily care, knowing that someone is there for them. Becoming a brother and sister is the only way out, the only way to always be together and to get through the bleak everyday life together. For them, kinship is not a game or an attempt to circumvent bureaucratic hurdles and fool naïve Europeans. Not at all, with just a few convincing touching scenes, the Dardennes show how Loquita takes care of Tori as her older sister and the boy misses the girl if he hasn't seen her in 24 hours. Finding herself hidden in the basement of a former marijuana plantation, Loquita desperately searches for a way to call her brother (the girl's phone has been taken away), realizing how important it is for the boy to hear his sister's voice. In trying to make sense of the new family format, the Dardenne is close to Hirokazu Koreeda. Like "Shoplifters," "Tori and Lokita" presents truly close people who have no kinship. Family is who you love, who surrounds you.
As always with Dardenne, the lively and very agile camera never lags behind the characters. The close-ups allow you to fully feel the situation of Tori and Lokita, to trace the slightest changes in the children's faces. It is crucial for the filmmakers to make a satisfied and satisfied audience try on the role of uninvited guests in a foreign country. This is not a new technique, but often authors who strive for realism get carried away with manipulative scripted moves. "Tori and Loquita" is a laconic film, devoid of excessive drama. Nothing needs to be added to the story of the main characters; the migrants' situation is tragic as it is.
With a dense social foundation, "Tori and Loquita" looks like an adventure film about children in difficult circumstances. If this were a harmless game rather than a harsh reality, we would be facing a variation of Rob Reiner's "Stay With Me." A boy and a girl take risks every day, but whether because of their young age or their desperate situation, they don't even think about the fact that jokes with drug dealers end badly.
If you've never seen a Dardenne Brothers movie before, "Tori and Loquita" is a great way to get to know each other. The picture is not overloaded with meanings, is clear and topical. Today, the migrant crisis in Europe has been overshadowed by even more terrible events, but the children and adults who came to the other continent in search of a home have not gone anywhere, but still face tedious bureaucratic procedures and are forced to seek illegal ways to earn money. Through a private story, the authors paint a large-scale problem, showing the world through the eyes of migrants. But one should not think that the problems of Belgians are in any way unrelated to the lives of Russians. It is enough to look around - the labor of newcomers still goes unnoticed, and few people care about their troubles. Dardenne teaches the audience through artistic means to treat everyone humanely and to try to take the side of the other. A simple but necessary exercise.
This article was sponsored by Samuel Yildirim
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