Tori et Lokita

Before I begin this review, I should note that I am Belgian myself, and that I therefore happily applaud any movie originating from my country as there aren't many of them releasing.

That being said, this film might leave you a little unsatisfied. The story is about an immigrant girl trying to get an allowance to remain in Belgium instead of having to return to her country of origin. Meanwhile, she has to take care of her younger brother.

The story itself is intriguing and honestly quite interesting to see. A lot of it feels very realistic and profound, and that dept to the characters is felt through their connections to other characters. However, the writing, at times, is not so good. The dialogue given to a small boy doesn't fully feel appropriate, nor does it feel very intentional to make him feel more mature. It contains a lot of sentences that a child that young just wouldn't say.

At the other hand, the actor who plays the young brother Tori did his job very well. He plays the boy in a very dynamic and organic style and deserves quite a bit of praise. This can, sadly, not be said about the lead of this movie, Lokita. She is played quite blandly, with very stiff dialogue and, and this does disappoint me quite a bit, a feeling as if she just reciting her lines. Her actions feel as if they are just being read from the script, and although this isn't completely the fault of the directors, and I'm sure the actress did her best as well, this does hurt the movie quite a bit.

The plot of the film is quite complex in that it is, as I said above, quite a realistic picture, yet also not a straightforward one. There are a lot of situations where choices need to be made that don't seem to be the good ones, yet they are the only ones the characters can make to survive. The plot is also quite good, really, with one big problem. It ends way to soon.

The film is just shy of an hour and a half, yet it feels as if it was written as a two hour picture. The last half hour seems to have just been forgotten, leaving a lot of subplots, but also just the main plot, unresolved, which is in more than one way very unsatisfying. It really feels as if they had two hours of a picture, noticed too late that the deadline was due the day after, and just wrapped it up. I am sure that isn't what happened. It is just a way of describing the feeling I had leaving the theatre, but knowing that this was an intentional choice only makes it worse.

So overall, it is a film with a few ups and downs. It has a great premise, and a few scenes that will really move you and even take you to the edge of your seat, but it fails quite dramatically on other facets, mainly the ending, dialogue and lead. It is therefore not necessarily a movie I would suggest to others, but if you watch it, I'm sure you won't feel as if you wasted money on a ticket either.

This movie is really worth watching if you like the Dardenne brothers work. I am pleased to see that after all those years they are still efficient, motivated, that they have lost nothing of their talent, their wish to denounce social injustice and human behavior in general. They are genuinely the greatest specialists of this kind of social issues, the equivalent of Ken Loach if you prefer. This story is so compelling, moving, but cruel, painful, to watch, especially after the end. It belongs to their best work, but each of their film belongs to their best too.... I am ready to continue to wait for each of their films.

This has a large thumping heart deep down, where clearly the Dardennes brothers (Luc and Jean Pierre) want these characters to make it through some how and some way in their dire circumstances. There is (as David Erhlich notes in his review) anger underneath all of this, anger at how embedded exploitation of the undocumented are, how no one (insert meme) will think of the children and so on, how everything comes down to "where are your papers" and an absence of emapathy.

That may be enough for the film to power through in depicting these kids, Tori (Schils) and Lokita (Mbundu), who are exceptional as child/teen performers go for what they're asked to show and embody. This does work as a tension-filled thriller especially in the second half, but compared to some of the other Dardennes films it is almost expectedly sad and, when seeing Lakita in her indentured servitude in the Marijuana farm it becomes even sort of dreary as a stark drama of circumstance and dread.

This isn't to say the film isn't worth seeing because it does keep you absorbed into both of these kid's plight and also how resourceful and quick on his feet Tori is (you think they will be apart for three months but hey not so fast, guys). But once the Dardennes get us to that ending, for all of the film's virtue and how much heart Mbundu puts into her performance in particular, it all feels like "well... that really sucks" and the catharsis isn't as powerful as it should feel.

Maybe that's more my problem than yours, but since everything has been presented at such a Naturalistic slice-of-life key, that moment just feels like it... happens, and it just reminds me why I'll always hold something like De Sica/Zavatiini's Shoeshine - also about kids lost in a prison they can't escape until it is too late - in such higher regard because it goes for real *and* melodrama and feels more ambitious.

Stories about immigrants is becoming more and more common in the cinema. It's sadly an ever growing topic. But a lot of these films with this premise come from either one story or a series of stories from one particular country.

This particular tale has great authenticity both in its plot and homemade style with its hand-held camerawork.

There are some tough sequences and all of that along with sound character development makes for a tense and dramatic second half. It was almost like watching a documentary.

A lot of it is thanks to the two strong performances of Joely Mbundu and Pablo Schils. Their connection and on-screen friendship felt very believable and natural.

There's a lot they are having to deal and it paints a very interesting picture on how immigrants in this part of the world are treated.

I could be picky and say that the ending does leave a few loose ends and some of the choices felt rushed. But I didn't think it was a major drawback as it still some tense sequences that had me totally gripped.

I was surprised that it's just less than 90 minutes long given the subject matter. But I think what we got gave us enough of a glimpse into this dark and tough world.

Our investment is thanks to the two leads who give off strong natural sympathy and put us on their side early on.

The content is tough at times and the documentary approach gave it the rawness to make it work.

In a land where you had dreamed of being free, of independence with your own autonomy, you find your shackled and confined, forced to break rules, committing crimes, with a state that will not give you liberty. Along with Tori you make do the best you can, adopted brother with whom you had made a plan, but the dealer has you trapped, the smugglers make you feel kidnapped, your money taken, you feel forsaken, abused, attacked.

Following the lives of two juvenile African immigrants who find themselves trapped in a cycle of despair and abuse. Joely Mbundu is outstanding as Lokita, as she desperately tries to make enough money to send home while taking care of Tori, who has agreed to act as her brother while she seeks permanent residency in Belgium.