Luc Dardenne

Sandra has to ask again. In Two Days, One Night (2014), a factory worker spends a weekend trying to persuade her colleagues to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job. Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, who wrote and directed it together, make each repetition painful because the people answering have their own reasons to refuse. We were anxious each time Sandra had to ask again, because saving her job meant asking someone else to lose money.

The partnership matters: this is a shared body of work, and there is little use pretending we can divide its virtues between the brothers. Documentaries in Wallonia in the 1970s preceded fiction features in the mid-1980s and international recognition with La Promesse (1996). The films went on to examine parenthood and criminality in The Child (2005), then foster care and attachment in The Kid with a Bike (2011). The recurring question is what one person owes another, especially when neither has much to spare.

Their handheld camera follows closely behind people or drops to ground level, making it difficult to regard them from a safe distance. Natural light and pared-down sets keep attention on what someone does next. Regular collaborators include Olivier Gourmet and Jérémie Renier. Two Days, One Night brings the international star Marion Cotillard into this approach without abandoning workplace solidarity and isolation. Her performance sustains the painful repetition, while the brothers get suspense from conversations that another film might hurry past.

That concentration also has a drawback. A few of Sandra's encounters feel chosen to supply a complete set of responses, and we become aware of the writers making sure each position gets its turn. Yet the brothers allow the people who might cost her a job to have reasons we can understand. The reservation matters, but it does not undo the tension or Cotillard's hold on our attention. Start with Two Days, One Night, but do not mistake the ordinary setting for a promise of a restful evening.