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La Promesse

La Promesse

Drama · 1996

Igor, aged 15, and his father Roger deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.

Movie details

La Promesse

1996 Drama 1h 34m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

Igor, aged 15, and his father Roger deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over La Promesse?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Jean-Pierre Dardenne · Luc Dardenne

Written by

Luc Dardenne · Jean-Pierre Dardenne · Alphonse Badolo · Leon Michaux

Jérémie Renier

Jérémie Renier

Igor

Olivier Gourmet

Olivier Gourmet

Roger

A

Assita Ouedraogo

Assita

Florian Delain

Florian Delain

Riri

H

Hachemi Haddad

Nabil

Rasmané Ouédraogo

Rasmané Ouédraogo

Amidou

Jean-Michel Balthazar

Jean-Michel Balthazar

The Labour Inspector

Court is in session

Put La Promesse on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.