Ever since The Promise in 1996, the prospect of a new film from Belgian siblings Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne has been cause for rejoicing. The Silence of Lorna, their latest portrait, which premiered in Cannes, has failed to elicit the rapturous response received by some of the earlier work, such as the 2005 Palme d'Or winner The Child. Yet despite an exposition that some found lengthy, the Dardennes bring great resonance to this fable of a young Albanian immigrant caught in a terrible dilemma who struggles to redeem herself. As in The Promise, the film focuses on the illegal maneuvers of “aliens” hoping to share in the material affluence of the European Union – in this instance by obtaining citizenship through false means. This time the brothers have placed their camera in the more gentrified city of Liège, rather than their grimy industrial hometown of Seraing. Lorna has become a Belgian citizen through her sham marriage to junkie Claudy (Dardenne regular Jérémie Renier). A local mobster who engineered the union is planning to kill Claudy with a staged overdose so Lorna can remarry a Russian Mafioso, who himself will then gain Belgian citizenship. But when the now clean Claudy threatens to start using drugs again, the two have passionate sex and form a sudden bond.