A quiet, compassionate rites-of-passage narrative as 12 year-old Cyril is abandoned by his single parent father.
Left at a boys’ home, Cyril (Thomas Doret) refuses to accept his father has moved on. He’s desperate for his parent’s love but also wants the return of his bike. In skipping school and travelling to the now empty former shared home, Cyril comes into contact with the kind-hearted Samantha (Cécile de France), the local hairdresser. Agreeing to help the boy find his dad at weekends, Samantha is drawn into supporting the emotional turmoil that is Cyril as he navigates the rejection by his father (Jérémie Renier) and falls in with the wrong crowd.
The quiet dignity of the every day is a trademark in the films of the Dardenne brothers resulting in a simplicity of narrative that is deceptively complex and volatile.
Rating: 81%
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Two Days One Night, The Child), Luc Dardenne (Two Days One Night, The Child)
Writer: Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Two Days One Night, The Child), Luc Dardenne (Two Days One Night, The Child)
Main cast: Thomas Doret (Renoir, The Unknown Girl), Cécile de France (The French Dispatch, The Spanish Apartment), Jérémie Renier (In Bruges, November)
An Opinion or Two 