Tori and Lokita, two African migrant children, are living in a harsh and busy Belgian city. Tori (Pablo Schils), only a 12-year-old boy, and Lokita (Joely Mbundu) a 17-year-old girl, say they are brother and sister. They work together, protect each other, and are fully dependent on one another for pretty much everything as they just try to survive. Biologically, they have no actual relation, but the two are perhaps closer and more protective than any other real siblings out there. In fact, it becomes clear that the two are practically sustenance to each other as outsiders in this harsh world. So much so to a fault. Their relationship is the heart of the Dardenne’s brothers’ latest film, Tori and Lokita.

The film opens on a direct shot of Lokita. She’s visibly stressed. Hard breathing and practically shaking, someone off-screen is asking her questions about the validity of her and Tori’s relationship. The hand-held camera holds on her for an uncomfortable amount of time. We purposefully feel her anxiety until she (and we) can’t take it anymore and the interview is cut short. Shortly after, we find out that unlike Tori, who has refugee status in the county, Lokita does not, making it impossible for her to work legally in the country. Her and Tori practice their story of how they “reunited” at some point, hoping the story will grant Lokita the papers she needs.

In the meantime, the two are practically inseparable. They share the same room, they sing songs to each other, and they work for a restaurant owner, Betim (Alban Ukaj), selling weed around the city for him. But despite Tori being there for Lokita at every step, the pressure of responsibility weighs on Lokita, and she’s the one who gets taken advantage of in emotionally and physically violent ways. Her mother back in Africa calls her constantly requesting money for the family, the smugglers who brought Lokita to the city harass her for the money she owes them, though she barely has enough to get by, and Betim forces her into sexual favors in exchange for a tiny sum of extra cash. Tori is her only silver lining in a world full of the looming threat of potential violence everywhere they go. And Lokita’s anxiety only worsens when she’s forced to hide out and work in a grow-house for Betim in exchange for fake papers. But that includes being separated from Tori for at least three months, and that is something neither of them are equipped to handle.

There is a lot more than just sympathy that we feel for these characters in Tori and Lokita. Dropping us right in the middle of the action, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne’s frustration with this subject matter bleeds heavily though the anxiety-induced shots and characters. Tori and Lokita have each other, and that’s it. Everyone else around them views the two as expendable, even nuances, unable to really grasp what they, especially Lokita feel. No one around them really cares to help them, rather just using them and then throwing them away, in the most hostile and unforgiving ways.

There are times, especially during the second half of the film, where it is hard not to feel frustration at Tori and Lokita’s actions. They risk everything just to try and talk to one another and to see one another while Lokita is basically kept prisoner in the grow house. But you can’t be mad at them. In this film, it feels like it is them against the world, and it a lot of ways, that is absolutely the case. They need each other more than words can express.

Though both had never acted before in anything, the performances by Schils and Mbundu are very impressive, carrying the weight of such a harsh story like pros, while also making such a sweet and genuine relationship feel totally real. And the Dardenne brothers, continuing their streak of realist dramas, do offer a very gripping work that feels like a thriller. They don’t get caught up in making you feel a certain way about these characters, you just do because of how they present everything to you. It’s a very bleak movie with a tragic ending to match, but I don’t see how it could have ended any other way. Such an ending seems necessary to portray the filmmakers’ frustration about the unfair world that migrants such as Tori and Lokita must endure. And it’s a story that will hopefully push viewers to bring about more attention and change to issues such as this.

Tori and Lokita is now available on Blu Ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection as part of their new Janus Contemporaries line.

Home Video Distributor: Criterion
Available on Blu-ray - November 21, 2024
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English
Audio: French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

From two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne comes the story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori, two immigrants to Belgium—from Cameroon and Benin, respectively—whose siblinglike bond is the only resource they can depend on in their struggle for survival on the margins of European society. The pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy. When Lokita is held captive in a marijuana grow house, events spiral out of control. Winner of the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Prize at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, the latest humanist drama from the Dardenne brothers is a heart-stopping thriller that casts an unflinching eye on the trials of the young and dispossessed.

Video

Presented in a 1.85:1, aspect ratio, the high-definition transfer of Tori and Lokita displays a nice, natural, and clear image to enjoy. They color grading in sequences in the city gives off a very cold and harsh look that the characters live in, and in sequences in the outskirts of the city give a nice, natural, and earthy look to the image. They blacks give a nice depth and show off shadows well, especially during night sequences, without sacrificing the clarity or quality of the image. Overall, it is a nice and neat transfer.

Audio

With a 5.1 surround soundtrack, the dialogue, music, and the purposefully overbearing ambient noises come in loud and clear. Mixing the characters’ anxious breathing, footsteps, and any other feared noises higher than anything else in the picture, the audience is fully immersed in the unforgiving Belgian city.

Supplements:

No commentary, but the release does feature a very neat interview with the directors where they discuss the process of making Tori and Lokita, as well as their own analysis of the story and the themes of the picture.

Commentary:

• None

Special Features:

• Meet the Filmmakers, a new interview with directors Jean-Pierre
• Luc DardenneTrailer

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	Extras
Composite Blu-ray Grade

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime: 88 mins
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne; Luc Dardenne
Writer: Jean-Pierre Dardenne; Luc Dardenne
Cast: Pablo Schils; Joely Mbundu; Alban Ukaj
Genre: Drama
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor: Janus Films
Official Site: https://www.criterion.com/films/33650-tori-and-lokita
Release Date: July 18, 2023
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: November 21, 2023
Synopsis: The story of seventeen-year-old Lokita and twelve-year-old Tori, two immigrants to Belgium—from Cameroon and Benin, respectively—whose siblinglike bond is the only resource they can depend on in their struggle for survival on the margins of European society. The pair work as performers in a cheap trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while balancing the demands of an indifferent bureaucracy.