The Dardenne brothers strike again with this well-crafted film. This film won plenty of awards such as Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, as well as Best French Language Film at the Lumiere Awards in 2009. This drama thriller takes place in the Belgian City of Liege. Lorna is a young Albanian woman who resides in Belgium with her husband Claudy. Claudy is an addict that has only married Lorna for her money, in exchange that Lorna is viable to live in Belgium. Lorna spends her time working at a dry-cleaners where she makes very minimal pay. Lorna's goal is to become free from her marriage to Claudy by having a Russian kill him off in order to open up a snack shop and marry her true lover, Sokol. Throughout the movie we see the actions that Lorna takes and steps she has to go through in order to achieve her goal. Lorna's character becomes more evident throughout the movie. She's very pleasant but at the same time she's very direct when it comes to getting what she wants. Claudy on the other hand, struggles with his mental and physical health because he's a recovering addict that is experiencing withdrawal symptoms. This is key in his marriage with Lorna because we see her facial expressions towards him which shows us that they are nowhere near in love. Fabio is the Russian that is arranging Lorna's marriage to Sokol. Throughout the movie we see how brutal and heartless he is, while doing whatever it takes to make sure he collects his pay. Lorna's true lover Sokol, is barely present throughout the film. He's very sneaky and doesn't stick around too much. This opens up a question of what is it about Sokol that makes Lorna love him so much. A theme that is present in the film is how unconventional their marriage is. While Lorna is deeply in love with another man, Claudy is only in the relationship for money to support his bad addiction habit. This creates tension between the two which is shown in the film. This is a great film by the Dardenne brothers and I would recommend it to those who love drama thrillers, as it shows what people are willing to do for money and be with their true love.
Review of Lorna's Silence
