''L'Enfant'' ( English: ''The Child'') is a 2005 Belgian film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, starring Jérémie Renier and

Déborah François Déborah François (; born 24 May 1987) is a Belgium, Belgian actress. She is best known for her starring role in the Palme d'Or-winning film, ''L'Enfant (film), The Child'' (2005), directed by the Dardenne brothers. In 2009, she won a César A ...

. The film was released under its French title in the US, and as ''The Child'' in the UK. It received critical acclaim and won the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

at the

2005 Cannes Film Festival The 58th Cannes Film Festival took place from 11 May and ran until 22 May 2005. Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica served as jury president for the main competition. Cécile de France hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Belgian filmmakers D ...

, among other accolades. In 2017, the film was named the fourteenth "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''.

Plot

Bruno, 20, and Sonia, 18, are surviving on her welfare cheques and Bruno's petty crimes when Sonia becomes pregnant. While Sonia is absent, Bruno sells their baby to a

black market A black market is a Secrecy, clandestine Market (economics), market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality, or is not compliant with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the set of goods and services who ...

adoption ring to make some quick cash. He tells Sonia, telling her that they can simply "make" another baby, but Sonia is sickened and faints. Faced with Sonia's shock, and feeling regret for his mistake, Bruno buys the child back at a premium—but, after being turned away by Sonia, his mounting debts lead Bruno down a quick path to desperation. He also learns Sonia is pressing charges. He winds up in prison, and Sonia visits him, sharing a moment of despair.

Cast

* Jérémie Renier as Bruno *

as Sonia *Jérémie Segard as Steve * Fabrizio Rongione *

Olivier Gourmet Olivier Gourmet (born 22 July 1963) is a Belgium, Belgian actor. Gourmet was born in Namur. He won the Best Actor Award (Cannes Film Festival), Best Actor award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for his role in ''The Son (2002 film), Le Fils'' ...

Reception

Critical response

''L'Enfant'' received critical acclaim. Review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

gives it an 86% approval rating, based on 106 reviews, with an average score of 7.5/10. The site's consensus reads, "The Dardennes continue to excel at presenting works of rigorous naturalism, with detached observations of authentic characters that nevertheless resonate with complex moral issues.". On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received an average score of 87, based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

''L'Enfant'' won the

, making directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne twice winners of the Palme d'Or, having won the award previously in 1999 with ''

Rosetta Rosetta ( ) or Rashid (, ; ) is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The Rosetta Stone was discovered there in 1799. Founded around the 9th century on the site of the ancient town of Bolbitine, R ...

''. The film received the André Cavens Award for Best Film by the

Belgian Film Critics Association The Belgian Film Critics Association (, UCC) is an organization of film critics from publications based in Brussels, Belgium. History The Belgian Film Critics Association was founded in the early 1950s in Brussels. Its membership includes film r ...

(UCC). It was also nominated for Best Film and Best Actor (for Jérémie Renier) at the

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mos ...

. The film was chosen as Belgium's official entry for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

at the

78th Academy Awards The 78th Academy Awards, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, P ...

, but did not secure a nomination.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Enfant, L' 2005 drama films 2005 films Palme d'Or winners Films set in Belgium Films directed by the Dardenne brothers Sony Pictures Classics films Films about atonement Best French-Language Film Lumières Award winners Best Foreign Film Guldbagge Award winners Belgian drama films 2000s French-language films Les Films du Fleuve films 2000s Belgian films French-language drama films French-language Belgian films