The Kid with a Bike
Short description
Twelve-year-old Cyril is determined to find the father who left him in a children's home, promising to return for him. His search leads nowhere: the father has moved out of the apartment they shared and makes no contact. After repeatedly running away and being brought back, Cyril meets Samantha by chance. She runs a hair salon and agrees to take him in on weekends. Much of the film turns on Cyril's inability, at first, to recognize the affection she offers him, and on whether her patience can withstand his anger.
The film is a drama directed and written by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, and it stands in the middle of the filmography they built together, between Rosetta, The Son and To Each His Own Cinema before it and Two Days, One Night, The Unknown Girl, Tori and Lokita and Young Mothers after it. It was produced by the brothers with Denis Freyd, and made as a Belgian, Italian and French co-production. Cécile de France plays Samantha, Thomas Doret plays Cyril, and Jérémie Renier plays Guy, with Fabrizio Rongione, Olivier Gourmet and Egon Di Mateo in supporting roles.
The Kid with a Bike received a critics' rating of 8.1 out of 10 from 135 reviews, notably higher than its 7.1 out of 10 on TMDB from 469 votes.
What's left behind the scenes
- It took the Dardenne brothers about a year to write the screenplay.
- Filming took 55 days. This was due to the age of the main character and rather strict regulations in France regarding working with minors.
- This is the first film by the Dardenne brothers that was shot in the height of summer. Because of this, the lighting in it looks somewhat unusual compared to their previous directorial works.
- In the initial version of the script, Samantha was a doctor.
- The role in the film was Tom Doré's debut. Several hundred boys auditioned for it, and he was only fifth on the list of candidates in the first stage of auditions.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
