L'Enfant (The Child)

2005
Belgium/France
95 min
15

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Written by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast: Jérémie Renier, Déborah François
Language: French
Website: www.sonyclassics.com/thechild/

Eighteen-year-old Sonia (François) returns from hospital with her new-born son Jimmy, only to find that her flat has been sub-let by her petty thief boyfriend Bruno (Renier). When a 'fence' tells him that people pay good money for babies to be illegally adopted, he impulsively decides to sell his own offspring, triggering a fateful chain of events. Another impressively unsentimental yet compassionate account by the Dardenne brothers of life amongst young have-nots in the anonymous Belgian industrial town of Seraing.