New Wave Films have announced the April DVD release of ‘The Silence of Lorna’ from the multi-award winning Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who are celebrated for their contemporary and deeply moving films – humanist dramas about characters on the fringes of society. Their best known films are La Promesse, made in 1996, followed by Rosetta, winner of their first Cannes Palme d’or in 1999, as well as Best Actress for Emilie Dequenne; The Son won the Best Actor award for Olivier Gourmet in Cannes 2002 and The Child secured a second Palme d’or for the directors at Cannes in 2005.

In their new film, ‘The Silence of Lorna’, which won them another Cannes award in 2008 for Best Screenplay, Lorna, played by the Kosovar actress Arta Dobroshi, is a young Albanian living in Belgium. In order to become the owner of a snack bar with her boyfriend, she becomes an accomplice to a plan devised by a mobster named Fabio. Fabio has orchestrated a sham marriage between her and Claudy, a hapless drug addict. The marriage enables her to obtain Belgian citizenship, and then to marry a Russian Mafioso willing to pay a lot of money to acquire the same citizenship quickly. However, for a second marriage to take place, Lorna has to get a divorce from Claudy, but she discovers that Fabio is planning for Claudy to be killed by a drug overdose… Will Lorna keep silent?

‘The Silence of Lorna’ is released on 6th April 2009, BBFC cert 15, SRP £19.99. Extras on the DVD include an Interview with Arta Dobroshi, and Interview with the Dardenne Brothers and the Theatrical Trailer.