As many of you know, foreign films are one of my favorite genres. They provide that view of life from a different perspective, sometimes parallel, as well as opposites to our living life in the United States. This story gives us a view of a fact that most of us never contend with, citizenship. “Lorna’s Silence” is presented in a style I call a “slice of life” film. Actress Arta Dobroshi virtually carries the film with her performance as Lorna. We join the film characters without any set-up, follow them for a while, and just as abruptly, leave their lives…

Lorna (Arta Dobroshi) is an Albanian emigrant in Belgium, with the dream of leaving her ordinary and menial job to open her own business. She needs money and permanent resident status. A fellow Albanian with a way to make money, and, get her resident status resolved approaches her.

The persons involved in the elaborate plan are a drug addict who needs money for his habit, a cigarette smuggler who has to lay low outside of Russia but has the money needed, and an Italian cab driver who has intentions of becoming a big time crime lord has a hustle to meet everyone’s needs. The plan: the addict will be paid to marry Lorna so she can gain Belgian citizenship and he makes money, that marriage will end, and Lorna will then marry the cigarette smuggler to provide his reentry to the country and be well paid. And, in situations that involve human emotions, the unpredictable comes into play.

“Lorna’s Silence” is in French with English subtitles.

Starring Arta Dobroshi, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Alban Ukaj, Morgan Marinne, Olivier Gourmet, and Anton Yakovlev.