Tori and Lokita

Brings to light the personal stories of people relegated to the shadows of mainstream society—and the bureaucratic decisions, made with an inhuman indifference, that result in their misery.

Whenever [Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne] turn their camera to the black African population, it's very important because what they are saying is "these are French folk, and we're including them in our narrative canon."

Quite devastating but so well made.

A tight, heartrending social realist drama from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who've worked in the genre for decades and do it better than almost anyone else.

Another exacting portrait of the precarity oppressed people experience trying to get ahead in life.... The Dardennes' unflinching examination of its characters' lives remains poignant and affecting.

What I didn’t grasp when I first watched the movie is that the act of grace I was anxiously waiting for had happened before the movie began.

For filmmakers as prolific and politically potent as the Dardennes, it’s frustratingly business as usual.


Tori and Lokita shows the unvarnished dangers and sexual predation faced by minors seeking legal status. Those on the fringe of society are susceptible to criminals who feed on desperation. They toil in the shadows with no recourse for justice.

[The Dardennes's] film still quakes with an incensed and undeniable power, personified in the forms of two spiritual siblings who represent each other’s only refuge.

Their resilience and desperation resonate thanks to expressive performances and an optimism — perhaps misguided — that shines through their despair. The film spotlights a broken system without turning heavy-handed.