Legendary Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne explore loss, grief, resentment, and forgiveness in The Son, the crown jewel of their more than thirty-year career. In a tour de force performance that earned him the Best Actor Award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, Olivier Gourmet portrays Olivier, a carpenter who initially refuses to apprentice a teenager, Francis (Morgan Marinne), for reasons seemingly related to the murder of his son five years earlier. While Olivier begins to stalk an unaware Francis, who considers him a mentor, the camera traces Olivier’s movements with documentary-like intensity as his obsession gradually transforms into mercy upon discovering the tragic circumstances of Francis’s life. In depicting the redemptive power of absolution, the Dardennes raise challenging questions about mourning and compassion, all while creating a masterclass in slow-burning, character-driven realism.