La Promesse 1996

     Igor and his father Roger, have a lot of scams going to make money.  Igor is supposed to be apprenticing at an auto garage but the owner gets fed up after too much lateness and leaving early.  The pair rent out apartments to illegal immigrants, they will take off money from the rent if the men work for them on construction.  A building inspector pays a surprise visit and Amidou (a regular worker) falls of a scaffold while hurrying to hide.  Igor makes a promise to Amidou that he will look after Assita, Amidou’s wife and their baby son who recently arrived at the apartment.

     Roger is supposed to be the adult here and he has no principles or any concept of right and wrong.  Igor is a minor but he takes this promise to Amidou seriously and tries to help Assita and the baby.  This puts him at odds with his father, he expects like father like son behavior.  This is good, it illustrates different cultures and practices plus family relationships.  Renier was 11 years old in his first film, he is 15 in this second film, he has gone on to roles in 41 more movies.  3 ½* (I liked this movie)

92 min, Drama directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne with Jeremie Renier, Olivier Gourmet, Assita Ouedraogo, Frederic Bodson, Florian Delain, Hachemi Haddad.

Note:  imdb 7.7 out of 10.