Lorna's Silence

 

Set in the gritty, gray industrial city of Liege--in the Francophone part of Belgium--Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's film "Lorna's Silence" provokes audiences to both experience and confront the harsh reality and underbelly of the post industrial, globalized economic order.

The film's protagonist and reluctant heroine Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is an Albanian immigrant working in earnest, pressing and dry cleaning the bourgeoisie's clothes.  We watch as Lorna makes phone calls to her boyfriend Sokol (Albam Ukaj), an itinerant Albanian worker who takes jobs throughout western Europe.  She meets and speaks with Fabio (Fabrizio Rongione), an Italian taxi driver who is an aspiring gang boss.  It is through Fabio's scheming and entrepreneurial (albeit illegal) enterprises that Lorna has grabbed hold of the brass ring--she holds Belgian citizenship.  Lorna's citizenship is dependent on her newly-married status by an arranged (and purchased) marriage with Claudy Moreau (Jeremie Renier).  As Fabio reasons, no one will miss Claudy--a known and arrested heroin junkie and thief--and he schemes to rid Lorna of Claudy and arrange a marriage between her and Andrei, a Russian mob boss--a man desperate for the coveted EU passport and the opening of his smuggling business into western European markets.  Yet Claudy complicates matters by attempting to become clean, to put his life in order.  Claudy appeals to Lorna's very cloaked and insulated emotional and moralistic nature.  Lorna--conflicted about Fabio's plans--attempts to take matters into her own hands, by seeking an expedient divorce, a divorce that would ensure her freedom to marry Andrei, keep her in good and trusted standing with Fabio and his underclass cohorts, and keep Claudy alive.  Yet her attempts to have agency, to both free herself and Claudy from predetermined, orchestrated events, are thwarted.  Lorna's silence is heavy, brooding.  As we watch the close up shots and the bleak expressions of Lorna's face, we wonder whether she will keep quiet, her silence--once glacial--now thawing.

Arta Dobroshi's portrayal of Lorna is both beautiful and devastating.  Her facial expressions and gestures belie a raw bleakness and fortitude, characteristics of the new immigrant's isolation and degradation in their brave new world.  The Dardenne brothers (their films "Rosetta" and "The Child" won the Palme d'Or prize in 1999 and 2005) are once again brilliant with their attention to a naturalistic tone, crafting a narrative that renders a realist drama about the chasms and gaps between old and new Europe.  This film won best screenplay at the 2008 Cannes film festival.  

It is through Lorna's development as a character that we witness the moralistic tale--yes, Lorna is a victim of circumstances but she's also a free agent.  Hers are choiceless choices, but choices nonetheless.  Reminiscent of Stephen Frears' cautionary immigrant tale "Dirty Pretty Things" (2003) and Ramin Bahrani's "Man Push Cart" (2006), "Lorna's Silence" warns us of our own apathy, our own silence.