La Promesse (The Promise) is a story of the coming of age of a 15-year-old boy (Igor) and his struggle with the moral dilemma of having to choose the side of a corrupt father or his own conscience. The 1996 film, written and directed by Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, is set in a bleak Belgian town and shot in a matter of fact, documentary style, mostly with hand-held cameras that enhances rather than detracting from its dramatic theme.
The film follows the coming of age of young Igor, who is being tutored in the art of small-time hustling by his father (Roger). Igor spends most of his time working uncomplainingly for his father's shady construction operation that blatantly exploits the illegal immigrants from Africa and the Eastern Europe until an African worker is fatally wounded after falling from a scaffold during a police raid. The dying immigrant, before being buried in cement, instead of being taken to the hospital by Roger and Igor, extracts a promise (hence the film's title) from the young Igor about taking care of his wife (Assita) and his infant son.
The rest of the film explores Igor's struggle between loyalty towards his father (who loves his son despite all his shortcomings) and his conscience that centers on the need to keep the promise made by him to the dying man. The film shows that there is no easy solution to moral dilemma in life. Igor's decision to help Assita while with-holding the truth about her husband's death, makes her suspicious about his motives and also puts him in conflict his father until he is forced to make a choice between 'living a lie' and 'doing the right thing.'
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