La Promesse

Here is another interesting film about difficult moral choices from directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. It concerns a fifteen year old Belgian boy who has quit school and become an apprentice at a mechanics shop, though his real job consists of helping his father run a tenement home for immigrants (mostly illegal) which charges exorbitant rates. One day, one of the tenants dies in an accident while running away from a raid by immigration officials -- he makes the boy promise to take care of his wife and baby. The boy agrees. However, his father makes him keep his mouth shut. The strengths of the film lies in fact that the filmmakers choose to not pass judgement on any of the characters, while at the same time emphasizing the nature of the moral choice the boy must make between loyalty to his father and aiding the poor widow. The film looks and feels like their later film, The Son, which has similar strengths.