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Lorna's Silence

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (THE CHILD) direct this drama about an Albanian woman torn between connections to three men and her own dreams. Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is an immigrant living in Belgium. Though she has a boyfriend, her involvement with the Mafia leads her to marry Claudy (Jrmy Renier) so she can get citizenship. But her life is further complicated when she is told to marry a Russian criminal, putting Claudy's life in danger.
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Credits

Alban Ukaj, Jrmie Rnier, Jeremie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Arta Dobroshi, Morgan Marinne, Olivier Gourmet, Anton Yakovlev, Grigori Manukov, Mireille Bailly, Stephanie Gob
Critic Reviews

"It's the closest thing to a crowd pleaser that these rigorous, demanding and profoundly humane artists are likely to make."
New York Times
"LORNA'S SILENCE is a gritty, deceptively low-key, no-fuss, no-frills movie of consistent originality and surprise in which suspense arises straight up from the heroine's evolving character."
Los Angeles Times
"[A] somber beauty of a French-language drama....Every time predictability threatens, the plot takes an unexpected turn..."
Wall Street Journal
"[A] closely observed, sociologically astute, and amazingly naturalistic drama about moral compromise as a by-product of economic need." -- Grade: A-
Entertainment Weekly
"Breaking with the handheld subjectivity of previous films, the Dardennes keep the camera still and distant, giving the film an undercurrent of abstraction culminating in a final sequence that feels more like a fairy tale than social realism." -- Grade: B+
A.V. Club
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Renier's performance is the best thing in the movie....The gift of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne is to show their characters as trapped in personal human situations; they're not creatures of a plot."
Chicago Sun-Times
Included in Chicago Sun-Times's "The Best Foreign Films Of 2009" -- "[I]t's about personalities, as intensely observed as always with the Dardennes."
Chicago Sun-Times