Sympathy for the devil

By Nicholas Barber

When two twentysomethings with no money get engaged, the groom-to-be’s wealthy mentor invites the lovebirds to share his spacious home in suburban Brussels. Their money worries are over, it seems, just in time for the bride-to-be (Emilie Dequenne) to conceive a child. But wait. The benefactor and his protegé are played by Niels Arestrup and Tahar Rahim, the toad-like Mr Big and the tyro gangster from “A Prophet”, and their close association in our minds is merely the first indication that Dequenne is destined to rank a distant troisième in this particular ménage a trois.

In the current economic climate, she can hardly object to Arestrup’s patronising generosity, or to Rahim’s devoted gratitude to his surrogate father, but she can hardly escape, either. Soon, the two men, thick as thieves, have robbed her of all her power—or nearly all. Based on an incident that shocked Belgium in 2007, "Our Children" is an exquisitely acted, masterfully structured tragedy that has plenty to say about charity, immigration, mental health and the battle of the sexes. But the great achievement of its writer-director, Joachim Lafosse, is to have us aching with sympathy for someone who is guilty of the most horrendous of crimes. ~ Nicholas Barber