EVERY now and then, a diminutive flick made on a shoestring budget comes along and captivates long after the closing credits stop rolling.
Masterful Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne's The Kid with a Bike - Grand Prix winner at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it received an eight-minute standing ovation, no less - is one such petite offering that packs one very big emotional punch.
It tells the story of 11-year-old Cyril (Thomas Doret), who has been abandoned by his father for no apparent reason and lives in a state housing project building.
The youngster insists on returning to his father's apartment in search of his beloved bicycle, only to discover he had sold it (he needed the funds, it is later revealed).
While on the run from his “counsellors”, Cyril has a chance encounter with Samantha (Cécile De France), who voluntarily enters the boy's life by buying him a new bike.
The pair develops a relationship, which ends up strained when Cyril begins to hang out with the neighbourhood's bad boy, a suspected local 'dealer'.
The Dardenne duo's portrait of a troubled boy's life on the margins is compelling viewing, offering a restrained commentary of societal dysfunction through the eyes of a young innocent.
The strikingly statuesque and radiant De France (one of this reviewer's favourite European thespians), captivates - as always - with her powerful screen presence, but it is Doret who astonishes here with a sophisticated performance in what is, remarkably, his acting debut.
THE Kid with a Bike (M)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Starring: Thomas Doret, Cécile De France
Screening: UWA's Somerville until January 8, and Joondalup Pines from January 10-15, as part of PIAF's Lotterywest Festival Films
Rating: Four-and-a-half stars
Reviewed by: Emilia Vranjes