Few know how to win Palme d’Ors like Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (aka the ‘Dardenne brothers’). The directing duo have bagged themselves two so far, placing them in the esteemed company of Coppola, Imamura, Haneke, Kusturica, Sjöberg, August, and Loach. But even now, with both of them in or approaching their seventies, their output isn’t slowing down, and they’re still hungry for the Cannes competition. Though no director has ever won three Palme d’Ors, the Dardenne brothers’ upcoming entry, “Tori and Lokita,” came close: they did win the 75th-anniversary prize at Cannes last year.
In keeping with their Belgium-set neo-realist filmography, “Tori and Lokita” revolves around two young African immigrants, a young boy and an adolescent girl, who travel to Belgium, where the hardships of life in exile soon put their friendship to the test.
Although they’ve worked with some of the biggest names in world cinema (Adèle Haenel, Marion Cotillard, Cécile de France), the Dardenne brothers have never been averse to casting non-professional actors in their films. The leading role in their last movie (“Young Ahmed”), for example, was played by first-time actor Idir Ben Addi, and it’s the same for “Tori and Lokita”: the title roles will be the first acting credits for both Mbundu Joely and Pablo Schils. Charlotte De Bruyne, Alban Ukaj, Claire Bodson, Baptiste Sornin, and Marc Zinga comprise the supporting cast.
Here’s the official synopsis:
From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Two Days, One Night) comes the story of two immigrants struggling to survive on the margins of society. Winner of the 75th Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.
With two top prize wins to their name, it’s easy to forget the Dardenne brothers’ successes across other categories at Cannes. They’ve twice received a Special Mention from the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury for “Rosetta” and “The Son,” and won the special prize in that same section in 2014 for “Two Days, One Night.” They’ve also picked up Best Screenplay and Best Directing wins for “Lorna’s Silence” and “Young Ahmed” (with the latter’s win in 2019), and, to decorate their record even more, “The Kid with a Bike,” which is maybe their most well-known film, won the Grand Prix in 2011. Adding up these accolades and taking note of their half-dozen nominations, the Dardennes are second only to the mighty Ken Loach as the most celebrated director(s) in the festival’s history, and with good reason: they’re just that good.
Their latest, “Tori and Lokita,” opens on March 24 at the IFC Center in New York via Janus Films and Slideshow and begins to expand from there. Watch the new trailer below.
