Tori and Lokita

In one of their best films, the Dardenne brothers bring forth a powerful, social-realistic cry for humanity and humanism.

For nearly thirty years, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have portrayed people in the shadow of society, with one-hundred percent loyalty and unsentimental empathy. Films like Rosetta, The Son, The Child, and The Kid with a Bike belong to the central works of the history of social realist film history, and in 2017, the Belgian brothers were awarded with the Göteborg Film Festival’s honorary award. In Tori and Lokita, they depict two teenagers who together have illegally made their way from West Africa to Europe. In order to stay, Lokita has to convince the authorities that Tori is her younger brother, at the same time she sells drugs to pay the debt to her smuggler. Tori and Lokita is a film that looks our time straight in the eye without looking away. The film was awarded the Anniversary Award at Cannes.

• Jonas Holmberg