Plot
Sandra, a young Belgian mother, discovers that her workmates have opted for a significant pay bonus, in exchange for her dismissal. She has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job.
Release Year: 2014
Rating: 7.5/10 (7,500 voted)
Critic's Score: 93/100
Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Stars: Marion Cotillard, Fabrizio Rongione, Catherine Salée
Storyline
Sandra, a young Belgian mother, discovers that her workmates have opted for a significant pay bonus, in exchange for her dismissal. She has only one weekend to convince her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job.
Writers: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Cast: Marion Cotillard -
Sandra
Fabrizio Rongione -
Manu
Catherine Salée -
Juliette
Batiste Sornin -
M. Dumont
(as Baptiste Sornin)
Pili Groyne -
Estelle
Simon Caudry -
Maxime
Lara Persain -
Femme de Willy
Alain Eloy -
Willy
Myriem Akeddiou -
Mireille
(as Myriem Akheddiou)
Fabienne Sciascia -
Nadine
Anette Niro -
Nanna
Rania Mellouli -
Fille Timur
Christelle Delbrouck -
Barwoman
Timur Magomedgadzhiev -
Timur
Hassaba Halibi -
Femme de Hicham
(as Hassiba Halabi)
Trivia:
The original idea for the film came in the early 2000s, when the Dardenne brothers read about a real-life case in a big French factory. There was a worker whose production output wasn't good enough for the other workers to get their bonuses, so that person was let go. They heard about similar cases in Belgium, Italy and USA, and they all raised the question of solidarity. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 9/10
This is my first Dardenne Bros film and at the end of this film I was
like "I need to explore more of their films". This is a hard hitting
slow story. It could be described as monotonous, but I would describe
it as very very real. Following Marion's character, Sandra (la
performance c'est très magnifique), we see the hardship of how a series
of simple tasks turns into the hardest thing she has to do over the Two
days and one night.
The Dardenne Bros and the Cinematographer Alain Marcoen used long
shots, with very little cuts in certain scenes. At times whole scenes
were just one shot. This left Sandra and Manu (Fabrizio Rongione) to
hold the screen and make us believe what is going on and they did a
great job with this. It allowed me to get into their emotions and into
their lives of what they were going through. The lack of soundtrack
also added that extra realism into the story.
I found this a heart wrenching and at times victorious film - a very
good balance. The flow was great. It is slow, but just like Sofia
Coppolo's Lost in Translation the slow-moving pace is necessary to tell
the story.
I was able to get a ticket to this film at Festival de Cannes and it
was received very well by the audience around us.
I'm off, now, to watch some more Dardenne Bros films!
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