“Tori and Lokita” Review!

Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne

Starring: Claire Bodson, Baptiste Sornin, Marc Zinga

Director duo Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's film "Tori and Lokita" is a piece of stark and brutal social reality about two immigrants who pretend to be brothers and sisters. He defined his life by bringing ideals to light is almost impossible to argue with, with stark simplicity. It's a wonder, then, that their behind-the-scenes approach continues to produce difficult and sophisticated work. "Tori and Lokita" is a stark and brutal piece of social realism that exposes the brutality of the Belgian immigration system.

Young newcomers Pablo Shiles and Mbandu Jolie play Tori and Lokita, respectively, immigrant children who must struggle to survive and settle in an unforgiving new town. Despite temporary residence in a migrant center for children, the couple is forced to commit crimes such as sexual abuse, drug trafficking and slavery, to repay their kidnappers and send money to Lokita's mother and five siblings living in West Africa. In the mourning cycle.

Despite Tory being given immigration papers that Tory was an "abused witch child", officials refuse to believe that Lokita is his sister, a ploy they devised to keep the pair together. This means his deportation is imminent, and he is then forced to spend three months alone in an inhospitable marijuana factory to secure money from his corrupt drug dealer to secure his fake documents.

Separated from Tori and suffering an anxiety attack, Jolie is commanding as Lokita: in the most difficult role, she opens the film at length and follows it up with scenes that even seasoned actors would be paralyzed by. "Tori and Lokita" is a tough watch, and some could say that these two great white guys have no business telling this story. But when it comes to the reality and extent of the corruption and brutality that goes on in the country, it would be willfully simplistic to disparage the film for its brutal treatment of young black characters. Director Dardennes's work is not so much offensive obscenity as angry outrage and acting. The film doesn't care whether the couple deserves to be in the country or not, there's no inappropriate and extra-diametric music, no pomp, no cheap attempt to tug at our heartstrings, it's not unrealistic or unearned.

The directors put a face, a name and a story to the young, vulnerable migrants whom the Belgian media anonymises. We don't finish this movie to be sad, it creates a feeling of intense rebellion. With dialogue-stopping clarity, we say that Europe's inhuman obsession with borders and settlement processes is an act of deliberate barbarism.

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