Le Silence de Lorna (The Silence of Lorna) (Lorna's Silence) poster & wallpaper
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Arta Dobroshi, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Alban Ukaj, Morgan Marinne ... see more see more... , Olivier Gourmet , Anton Yakovlev , Grigori Manoukov , Mireille Bailly , Stephanie Gob , Laurent Caron , Baptiste Sornin

An Albanian woman living in Belgium finds her dreams of opening a snack bar with her boyfriend leading to tragedy after she agrees to marry a Russian Mafioso in order to gain citizenship. All Lorna wa... read more read more...nted was to start a small business with her loving boyfriend, but in order to make that happen she would first have to gain citizenship. Local mobster Fabio claims that he can make that happen if Lorna agrees to a sham marriage with a man named Claudy. After gaining Belgian citizenship, Lorna discovers that a high-profile Russian Mafioso is also seeking legal entry into Belgium, and soon. He's willing to pay a hearty sum in order to marry Lorna, but in order for that second marriage to be possible Fabio will have to have Claudy killed. Will Lorna be able to remain silent as Fabio's deadly plot unfolds, and what will become of her if Fabio finds out that she has warned Claudy of the impending danger he faces? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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4,402 ratings

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86% liked it

91 critics

R, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Release Date: May 19, 2008

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DVD Release Date: May 20, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (310)

  • neverteaseaweasel
    February 27, 2010
    neverteaseaweasel
    I haven't seen a movie quite like Lorna's Silence for a long time. I really do love these films that are just so pretentious, exadurated, and melodramatic, yet strangly plausible. For the most part the audience has to figure out what is going on for themselves. This really works ... read morewell, especially since the plot is relatively simple. At the same time it is thoroughly engrossing to watch. I have no idea if the whole citizenship underground/espionage actually exists, but it is fasinating on-screen. Lorna's Silence does absolutely everything you would expect from a film of its prestige and style; and to top it off, its really rather good.
  • dunmyer
    August 3, 2009
    dunmyer
    "Lorna's Silence," the new film from Belgium's Dardenne brothers, effectively creates a frightening vision of a world filled with people almost completely lacking empathy. But the story drags in the second half, and the film has an almost polemical edge that weakens its power. Th... read moree characters start to seem like artificial fabrications meant to drive home the Dardennes' socio-political critiques.

    The protagonists are Albanians who have built an elaborate scam to benefit Russians and other Easterners trying to get citizenship in the European Union. Deeply disturbing is the cold, matter-of-fact way they put value on the lives of others. Lorna, the main character, is the only woman in the group. I don't want to reveal all the details, so let's just say that Lorna sees this lack of empathy for others most vividly. Her central dilemma is whether to continue in this life or make some changes. Her struggle is profound, and the lives of several others hang in the balance.

    My problem is that the Albanians' complete amorality starts to seem phony. European filmmakers frequently try to fit life into their theories, rather than trying to build theories that match life. Here I felt the Dardennes were driven to convey a message about contemporary society, and they developed arch caricatures of people to drive that message home. But I wouldn't push this criticism too far. "Lorna's Silence" is still an important and very good film and should be seen by anyone who appreciates serious cinema. Just don't watch it when you're feeling fragile. The film does have the power to be deeply disturbing despite the fact that there's not one iota of on-screen violence. Its power to disturb is far more subtle.
  • gor41
    May 3, 2009
    gor41
    Moving portrayal of a woman's struggle for financial security in a shady world of unscrupulous men. Dobroshi gives a wonderfully understated but nuanced performance as Lorna's detached facade cracks and her emotions win through.
  • gator681
    September 7, 2009
    gator681
    In "Lorna's Silence," Lorna(Arta Dobroshi), originally from Albania, is almost a Belgian citizen which means that her husband Claudy(Jeremie Renier), a junky, has almost outlived his usefulness. Fabio's(Fabrizio Rongione) idea is to kill him, making it look like an overdose whic... read moreh would be simple enough. But after about six months living together, she has taken pity on him during his latest attempt to get clean. So, she bangs herself up to try to make it look like Claudy has been beating her(but not too much to get him arrested) in order to get a quicky divorce. But first, she has to be sure that her next spouse, a Russian, will wait long enough, in order to collect the money from this deal for her and her lover Sokol(Alban Ukaj) to open their dream snack bar.

    With "Lorna's Silence," the Dardenne brothers get perilously close to sentimentality in telling a story set in the underground economy where human beings are often reduced to just mere commodities. Fighting this inhumanity and making sacrifices like any other immigrant, this is the world Lorna is caught up in, hoping to move onto a more stable life. As the risks are high, so are the rewards, even if not entirely on a material level.
  • fb796967648
    August 5, 2009
    fb796967648
    The Dardennes brothers make some of the most rigorously moral and riveting films in current cinema. If LORNA'S SILENCE lacks a little of their usual bleak, brutal bite, it is still a riveting example of two filmmakers who seem to always be working at their peak. The story of an... read more incredibly practical young woman caught in a web of her own making, and her (possible) moral reawakening, if you haven't seen any of their other, probably greater, films (THE CHILD, THE PROMISE), this is a great place to start. If you have seen them, you'll already have made a place on your calendar for this. So I'm not even speaking to you.
  • mvieaddict
    April 10, 2009
    mvieaddict
    After seeing Rosetta, I was kinda disappointed with that movie from the Dardennes brothers and it was not my favorite. Now Le Silence of Lorna is their latest and I decided to give it a try, and I was happy I did.

    The story was fairly interesting,complex and well written. The wa... read morey it was directed and the psychological darkness of this movie will leave some people guessing the motivations and the reasons why the main characters do what they do.

    The protagonist is brilliantly portrayed by Arta Dobroshi.I dont know her before. But once again, her interpretation of her character was so depressed and real. On the other side, that is what makes it just interesting from a point of view.

    This movie is the journey of a woman in a very particular situation. It's a tragedy. Very good. Worth to watch !!
  • Ghw12158
    August 15, 2011
    Ghw12158
    interesting story but it never pans out and the character of lorna gets old and is simply uninteresting.
  • TonyPolito
    August 15, 2010
    TonyPolito
    Character study/observation of Lorna (Dobroshi), living in the marginalized 'banlieue' underbelly of Belgium, who must decide whether or not to turn-blind-eye to a junkie's murder-for-profit - and then live with the consequences.

    Lorna's down for business until he (Renier) gets... read more clean, inspired only by Lorna's smallest kindnesses. Living on society's jagged-edge, Lorna hasn't experienced the honest sincerity, appreciation and emotion he offers. Soon enough, that junkie's a real human being - and far less disposable. But criminal business-is-business, so Lorna's sponsors will have her silence in the matter, one way or the other.

    Classic stylings from the Dardenne Brothers, who draw from their early-career experience as documentarians to deliver the viewer a type of 'choreographed realism;' the lens impartially observing and obsessing Lorna's odyssey. The Dardennes shoot chronologically so actors 'experience' character tribulations, delivering yet more realism.

    The Dardennes' storylines/characters highlight sufferings of Europe's new underclass of poor and immigrants. This outing's no exception, based on certain criminal practices related to them by acquaintances. Hence their films are conscious-raising, at least in Europe, confronting the comfortable upper-classes with their disenfranchisement of such people from the enlightened culture/society they still imagine Western Europe to be.

    Dardenne Brothers films are also popular with European audiences because they place the central character deep within a high-stakes, life-changing ethical dilemma. Their filming style extracts empathy from viewers, wondering how they would decide, whether they could endure the consequences - and why supposedly sophisticated European society places its own in such circumstance.

    Quality deliveries by newcomers Dobroshi and Renier.

    For viewers finding no resolution in the final scene, carefully consider Lorna's stove again.

    Well recommended.
  • benjaminguilbert2
    January 2, 2010
    benjaminguilbert2
    I'm always a bit afraid when watching a Dardenne Brothers movie, gloom and poverty is going to depress me for the coming few weeks. But each time, I leave the theater delighted and boosted by their fantastic film-making qualities... Well not in this case.

    There are really good t... read morehings in this film, the gaps in the storyline create an interesting pace, the general theme of illegal immigration is interesting, etc. But something's off. The motivation behind the main character's action are often murky, the character of the druggy canabialize the story by adding a totally unuseful twist.

    Still interesting, if anything for the fantastic Fabrizio Rongione!

View All Le Silence de Lorna (The Silence of Lorna) (Lorna's Silence) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Peter Howell
August 28, 2009
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

In casting the previously unknown Dobroshi, the brothers approach greatness with their lean portrait of simple humanity tested by desire and driven desperate by circumstances. Full Review

John Anderson
August 28, 2009
John Anderson, Washington Post

The story within Lorna's Silence is built on tiny increments of tantalizing details, meted out in penurious droplets and with chest-tightening tension that suggests that what the brothers wanted to be...

Lisa Kennedy
August 28, 2009
Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

The Dardennes are masters of their brand of realist cinema. Over the years, the brothers' move from documentaries to narrative features has been handsomely rewarded. Full Review

Rick Groen
August 27, 2009
Rick Groen, Globe and Mail

Don't look for milk and kindness in the cinematic world of the Dardennes brothers. Full Review

Colin Covert
August 21, 2009
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have become festival darlings with rigorously minimal ethical thrillers. Full Review

J. R. Jones
August 20, 2009
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader

Offers a damning critique of global capitalism as it works its way down to the street and poisons the most intimate human encounters. Full Review

Steven Rea
August 14, 2009
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

The Dardennes' film offers a portrait of a fragile yet determined woman set on making a home for herself in the world, even as that world unravels before her eyes. Full Review

Ty Burr
August 13, 2009
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

It's a very good film nevertheless, and in Dobroshi it has a face that passes through every conceivable shade of sorrow. Full Review

Roger Ebert
August 13, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

What power is here. What affecting acting by Dobroshi, Renier and Marinne. Full Review

Mick LaSalle
August 7, 2009
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle

It leaves the audience with neither a sense of uplift nor devastation, but, rather, with something more akin to intellectual appreciation. Full Review

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