A dialogue about guilt between Marcel and his mother in Dostoyevski's The Brothers Karamazov was at the centre of discussions between Belgium's filmmaking brothers, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Falsch, Je pense a vous), when they started writing the screenplay for La promesse (The Promise). As they see it, the end result is without any doubt a form of meditation on that dialogue.

La promesse is the story of the initiation into ethical awareness of a 15-year old, Igor, who assists his father in an illegal immigrant labour network. Following his father's orders, he leaves an African immigrant who accidentally fell from some scaffolding to die. Before the unfortunate man dies, he makes Igor promise to look after his wife and son.

Torn between fear, the loyalty to his father, and the loyalty to what he promised, a slow process of awakening follows. He runs away with the widow and child. Little by little, he develops feelings of compassion and mutual commitment. Following is a long initiation into truth, during which he loses his father, but gains human dignity.

"We filmed it with a broad brush, rather than a delicate one," explains Luc Dardenne. "Trying to capture moments of reality which might have been lost to our production. We've chosen actors and actresses who were first and foremost faces and bodies - unknown ones, in some cases not even professionals. This in order to attain the documentary truth which we wanted to put across."

Although set in the Southern, French-speaking part of Belgium, international sales agent Jeanine Seawell, who's representing this film, says the story shouldn't be seen as dealing with a problem typical to that region. "It's far more universal than people think: it could have been set in contemporary France or Germany or somewhere else. Brought in a very realistic, documentary-like style, it hopefully will put people to think about how illegal immigrants are treated. CDS

La promesse - Monday 3-2, 11.45 AM, Pathe 4, Saturday 8-2, 2.15PM, Luxor