The Child

Apart from a biography of writer/directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, and a trailer reel of their films released on Artificial Eye (La Promesse, Rosetta, Le Fils, as well as The Child), the only extra here is a 23-minute interview (in French with subtitles) with the brothers. Fortunately it is wide-ranging and intelligent.

In it, the pair discuss: their inspiration for the film (a young woman spotted angrily pushing a pram); their obsession with the impoverished industrial town of Seraing where The Child and several of their other films and documentaries have been set ("it's the scenery of our childhood"); the methods they use to make their fictive characters seem so real and autonomous; and their reasons for working with the same basic crew for over a decade. "We're filming the arousal of feelings," one concludes, "but without sentimentalism"; while the other stresses their need to feel that they are always fighting against something. They are engaging and articulate.