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Although Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne are most known for the rawness of their social-realist drama’s, all their films also testify of great compassion, humanity and tenderness. In Dans l’obscurité (Darkness, 2007), a three minute episode made for the anniversary film of the Cannes Film Festival Chacun son cinéma they look with the same gaze at the medium that has been their companion since the late 1970s.

Seraing, a post-industrial era near the city of Liège, is the home base of Luc (1954) and Jean-Pierre (1951) Dardenne, probably the most widely known Belgian directors. The former coal mining and steel industry town is the decor of almost all their fiction films. The struggle for survival and human dignity is at the core of their oeuvre, from their breakthrough film La Promesse (1996) to their penultimate film Deux j

By 2006 the cinema of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne has developed an international following. Again set in Seraing (Liège), L’Enfant (The Child) tells the story of Bruno, a young unemployed vagabond, who sells his child in order to get some money. A character so recognizable but yet so completely detached and estranged from his environment is seldom seen in contemporary cinema. The moral crisis he is confronted