The Kid with a Bike

The Dardennes' powerful, award-winning drama tells of a troubled and volatile young teenager abandoned by his dad and 'adopted' by a hairdresser

The Dardennes’ typically understated but deeply affecting portrait of a teenager abandoned by his feckless father and informally ‘adopted’ by a kindly hairdresser combines incisive social observation with a psychological directness at times reminiscent of fairy tale. A battle between good and evil for a boy’s soul, set in a recognisable lower-middle-class environment, it casts a powerful spell