L'Enfant (The Child)

Few directors working today make films with the grace and magisterial power of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's best work.

Powerfully uplifting precisely because it's so horrifying.

Thanks to a combination of fluid camerawork and careful pacing, the Belgian writer-directors have produced a compelling narrative that sounds, if not a cautionary note, a worried one.

Renier and Francois give deeply affecting performances that help soften the film's harsh blows. But only in the compassionate eye of the Dardennes do these three children achieve a state of grace.

The Dardennes know how to build a scene for maximum tension: you yearn to find out who bought Jimmy, and whether his fate lies with a childless couple or an organ mill. But because they make moral thrillers, what matters isn't only actions and events but their emotional, spiritual and psychological costs.

For all the squalor and extremely upsetting subject matter, you can't take your eyes off the screen.

The film clearly wishes to explore the topic of children having children, but it only inspires a great desire to smack them both.