The Son

In this film the Dardenne brothers' camera sits on the back of Olivier's neck. Handheld, long takes, natural light; no score, no voice-over, no explanation. Following him, you mostly cannot see his face, and when you can you cannot read it. All the tension comes from that distance. Olivier is a divorced man who teaches carpentry at a rehabilitation centre for young offenders. He refuses to take on Francis, a new arrival, then accepts him and starts watching the boy closely. The reason is withheld through the first half: Francis is the boy who killed Olivier's young son during a botched robbery five years earlier. There is not a single scene of explanation. Olivier does not know what he wants either, and that uncertainty holds to the end. Olivier Gourmet won Best Actor at Cannes in 2002 for it. Who it is for: viewers who like realist cinema that carries a moral question through body language rather than speech. Who it is not for: anyone troubled by camera movement. The handheld work is relentless, and understanding what is happening in the first half is made deliberately difficult.