Each new film by the Dardenne brothers, craftsmen of a social cinema constantly renewed in its themes, is an event. Tori and Lokita, in theaters Wednesday, October 5, is the story of the fragile and difficult life of a young African boy and teenager who emigrated to Belgium. Arrived alone, they rely on their friendship to face their harsh exile. We met Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne to talk about it last May during the Cannes Film Festival, where Belgian filmmakers were once again rewarded, this time with the “Prix du 75e”.
Franceinfo Culture: What is the origin of the film?
Luc Dardenne: It comes from the desire for a film about friendship. We chose the friendship between two young unaccompanied exiled minors, without family, therefore alone. We have been able to read and hear that the loneliness of young unaccompanied migrants is a terrible thing: it is the cause of quite a few mental illnesses. And we said to ourselves that precisely, as in exile the family – when it is there – plays an important role, we find in friendship this bond of brotherhood which allows you to survive.
“We like to tell stories where the world is seen through the eyes of a child.”
Jean-Pierre Dardenneat franceinfo Culture
In “Tori and Lokita”, childhood is once again at the center of your cinema. Why this desire to always probe this period?
Jean-Pierre Dardenne: There are two reasons. The first is that being immigrant children with no family, Tori and Lokita are truly chemically pure frailty. She will be confronted for an hour and a half with obstacles and adults who are not necessarily all good people. How are these kids going to deal with this? The other reason is that we like to tell stories where the world is seen through the eyes of a child. With the fragility of childhood, its naivety, the suffering and the hope of life, because children normally love life. And with the possibility, when you are a child or young teenager, to move, to change. That’s it, it’s the idea of movement that is very important to us. And, suddenly, a staging that will only work on that.
In this regard, what are your favorite tools to show the strong proximity to reality, specific to your cinema? For example, in “Tori and Lokita” the sequence shots give the illusion that we are witnessing reality in the making.
Luc Dardenne: Yes, that’s what we’re trying to do: that the spectator is faced with a present that seems to be born in front of him. And so there is a spontaneity, a freedom. As if this spectator were dealing with human beings, with their bodies, with looks, with objects that occur in front of him. This is how our characters: of course, they are partly victims, our two young people. But they are people who are suddenly capable of bringing something new to life. Take little Tori: he hops, he explodes, he runs left, right, he has an idea, he climbs, he comes down, he finds tricks to get around the obstacle. And that’s what we like to show, the life there is in these two characters. An obviously constrained life, oppressed by the truth of the networks [de trafic de drogue] in which they find themselves. But they don’t come there with a fixed destiny: I would say that in themselves, they are the opposite of that.
You have managed to sublimate the acting of these two actors (Pablo Schils and Joely Mbundu), and besides, this is not the first time that you have revealed actors. How do you proceed?
Jean-Pierre Dardenne: There is a lot of talent at the start. When you are with people who have never worked, the decisive step is the choice. We felt like we met the right people for Tori and for Lokita. What we try to do with the staging is to give space to their presence: that they are as present as possible, so that the spectator in the room also feels present. And maybe at that moment things can happen between the viewers and the film.