L’Enfant (2005) - film review

Bruno, 20, and his girlfriend Sonia, 18, are both unemployed, but they manage to get by with welfare payments and a small income from Bruno’s petty crimes.  Things become harder when Sonia gives birth.  Bruno appears to be more preoccupied with making easy money than caring for his newborn child.  Sonia is far from pleased when he sublets their tiny apartment to strangers, but Bruno manages to top this by selling their baby to an illegal adoption ring.  When a traumatised Sonia is admitted to hospital, Bruno hastily recovers the baby, but the harm he has caused looks to be irreparable.  Rejected by Sonia, unable to pay his debts, Bruno sinks deeper into the mire of crime and social exclusion...

Belgium’s answer to Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, the Dardenne brothers - Jean-Pierre and Luc – have secured a reputation as two of Europe’s best directors of social realist film drama.  L’Enfant is one in a series of their films which draws us into the life of a vulnerable young person living a precarious existence on the margins of society.  The film stars Jérémie Renier, a notable actor in French and Belgian cinema, who made his film début in the Dardennes’ La Promesse (1996).  The film was awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2005; the Dardennes had previously won the same accolade for their similar 1999 film, Rosetta.

L’Enfant is a simple but very potent film, crafted with an economy and precision that invests it with great realism and truthfulness.  From the way it is shot and acted, it has the look and feels of a documentary, yet the power of the story it tells gives it an extraordinary emotional hold on the spectator.  The film is both a shocking reminder of the fault lines that run through our seemingly civilised and prosperous western society and a latter-day parable of a man’s fall from grace and ultimate redemption.

Renier’s brooding yet sympathetic performance vividly evokes the fragility and despair felt by those who end up turning to crime when everything else – education, social support and youth employment initiatives – have all failed to help them make the transition from adolescence to adulthood.   It’s a tough film to watch, but how much tougher is it to live the life we see portrayed on the screen?  A memorable and highly poignant piece of social realist cinema.

© James Travers 2008

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