“The Silence of Lorna” and the Gendered Perspective on Empathy
In-depth analysis of cinema for gender equality by I. Laguri
For these two Belgian directors, the theme of welcoming the other is viewed through the lens of gender equality. In fact, it is not only a recurring theme in all their films but also transcends gender, concerning both men and women.
Lorna, the protagonist of “The Silence of Lorna,” is an Albanian immigrant determined to obtain Belgian citizenship at all costs to secure a loan, start a bar, and build a life for herself. Alongside her are a cynical taxi driver-mediator and a boyfriend working in Italy.
Lorna, the protagonist of “The Silence of Lorna,” is an Albanian immigrant determined to obtain Belgian citizenship at all costs to secure a loan, start a bar, and build a life for herself. Alongside her are a cynical taxi driver-mediator and a boyfriend working in Italy.
The film opens when their plan is already underway: Lorna has married, for a fee, a drug addict whom the taxi driver accomplice will give a fatal overdose. This is feasible with someone like him, no one will suspect, he will disappear from the scene, leaving her a widow with citizenship and a loan that will multiply when she marries a Russian who pays her, allowing him in turn to obtain citizenship. But the addict is a desperately lonely human being who asks this girl, married in such a way, for help to get off drugs.
Lorna’s determination wavers, the exploitative relationship changes direction. Lorna seeks a mediating solution (obtaining a divorce for the abuse she has suffered from her husband), from exploiter she becomes helper, and here in turn becomes a victim of the taxi driver and boyfriend who pretend to accept her mediation but then proceed with their plan, considering the boy a drug addict whose life is worthless. Lorna rebels, now alone and at risk, but determined to welcome the child she believes she is expecting from the husband she failed to save and to whom she gave herself in a moment of crisis due to drug withdrawal.
The Dardennes’ cinematography is dry, actions are, as much as possible, in real time, there is no music, there is a prevalence of facts and short, back-and-forth dialogues, all of which invites the viewer to reflection rather than emotional involvement. A reflection on the complexity of the intertwining of situations that we are accustomed to seeing in a schematic way. Let’s take the idea of the immigrant as exploited, well, here, at the beginning, Lorna is on the side of the exploiters. Or again: women as objects of violence, this is only true in the second part of the story, but the issue is more complex and paradoxical, for example when the young Albanian does everything to get beaten up by the boy, who is incapable of it, to save his life, obtaining a divorce for abuse.
In the end, the maternity that Lorna is convinced of is uncertain, but it is clear that it is for her a sign and affirmation of a vocation to welcome life, a vocation learned after having contributed to annihilating the existence of a man.
