Tori and Lokita Review: Impossible to take my eyes off this movie about the migrant crisis

Watch a film by the Dardenne brothers, veteran Belgian directors. socket (1999) child with bicycle (2011) and Two days, three nights (2014) – the action takes place in the world of human struggle. Their focus is usually on poverty and unemployment; a kind of kitchen sink authenticity without flashy cameras, narrative fiction and other cinematic glamour. Looking away has never been more important than looking and seeing.

That’s what her new film is Tori and Lokita – about the refugee crisis and the harrowing journey many restless refugees have to make to find their way to relative safety in Europe – encourages the viewer to do so.

It stars young amateur actors Joely Mbundu as tough teen Lokita and Pablo Shiels as younger and softer Tori. The film follows in heartbreaking detail the story of two strangers – from Benin and Cameroon and in exile, unruly Belgium – who must be bonded.

Children are forced to live in an indifferent, often racist world without adult protection. Pretending to be siblings, they discover that the difficulties they face, from finding jobs for exploited drug couriers to threats of attack, make them a family of their own.

One scene in which the two sing and plan together is particularly poignant, but the film is smart not to overdo the relationship: it’s instinctive and beautiful, but there’s no time for feelings.

The filmmakers have spent time in refugee camps engaging in intense interviews with psychiatrists and other professionals to better understand the circumstances of their protagonists’ plight – a situation very real to countless minors across the EU, and one that is all too easily subjected to horrendous abuse.

This is an angry, even polemical film, the purpose of which is to awaken complacency in the viewer. We are told keep your popcorn fare and watch the world go by.