TORI AND LOKITA

JEAN-PIERRE DARDENNE, LUC DARDENNE | BELGIUM, FRANCE | 2023 | 89 MIN | NR | FRENCH 

From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT) comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori (in remarkable debut performances from Pablo Schils and Joely Mbundu), two immigrants — from Benin and Cameroon, respectively — struggling for survival on the margins of society. The inseparable pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side for the restaurant’s abusive cook, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy and a band of violent smugglers. When Lokita is held captive while working in a marijuana grow house, Tori scrambles to save his companion from their abusers, as events spiral out of control. Winner of the 75th Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne Brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.

Cast: Pablo Schils, Joely Mbundu, Alban Ukaj, Tijmen Govaerts, Charlotte De Bruyne, Nadège Ouedraogo, Marc Zinga