L’Enfant

Friday, March 17 - Monday, March 20, 2023

35mm print!

“An infant is born into this world. His parents are homeless minors. The father, Bruno (Jérémie Renier), a feckless hand-to-mouth street hustler, casually sells the baby to black-market traffickers and then, astonished by his girlfriend’s hysterical reaction, must scramble to recover the child. As Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne’s 1999 Cannes laureate Rosetta suggested a Marxist remake of Bresson’s Mouchette, so their second Palme d’Or triumph, L’Enfant, revisits Bresson’s more abstract Pickpocket in its saga of crime and punishment. L’Enfant is structured as a series of tasks, culminating in a chase that, both metaphoric and intensely physical, is also an agonizing descent into the depths. Above all, this is an action film—or better, a transaction film. It’s not just that the Dardennes orchestrate an exciting motor scooter purse-snatching and a prolonged hot pursuit. L’Enfant is an action film because every act that happens is shown to have a consequence.” – J. Hoberman, Village Voice

Screening as part of “Brotherhood: The Films of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne“

See more and save! Get a 3-ticket pack, good for any shows in the March 17-23 retrospective, for only $42– $30 for IFC Center members!

• Country Belgium
• Language French with English Subtitles
• Year 2005
• Running Time 95 minutes
• Distributor Sony Pictures Classics
• Director Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
• Cast Jérémie Renier, Déborah François, Jérémie Segard, Fabrizio Rongione

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.