Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Belgium, France | 2008 | 105mins | 35mm | Colour | Subtitled

Described by critics as nuanced, surprising and deeply moving, The Silence of Lorna is a beautifully observed study of immigrants in the new Europe attempting to eke out a living, often through rather dubious means.

Lorna is on the verge of securing Belgian citizenship following her marriage of convenience to Claudy, a hopeless junkie, and is working in tandem with Fabio, the local lowlife who has also arranged for her to remarry a dangerous Russian underworld figure for a considerable sum.

However, a divorce from Claudy proves difficult to secure and Fabio decides to resolve this by ensuring he dies of a drug overdose. Lorna attempts to save Claudy from his fate and hasten the divorce proceedings by falsely claiming domestic abuse, while all the time holding down a full-time job and maintaining a relationship with her lover Sokol.

Lorna’s silence at what happens next acts as confirmation of the Dardennes’ ability to depict compelling drama alongside the extraordinary ways in which someone’s life can be rapidly thrown off course. This is a story of redemption which maintains the Dardenne brothers’ reputation for creating low-key realist drama matched to an intensely gripping narrative.