At about 11, the stubborn and impulsive Cyril seems on his way to delinquency: he has no mother, his father wants a new life without him, so he’s in a foster institution. He searches for his father, wanting him and his bike. Through the intersession of Samantha, a hairdresser Cyril happens upon, he gets his bike back, and she offers to take him into her home on weekends. He remains aloof from her and gets involved with a young crook. Is Cyril intent on driving Samantha away – and what then?
The Kid with a Bike (French: Le gamin au vélo) is a 2011 drama film written and directed by the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, starring Thomas Doret and Cécile de France. Set in Seraing, it tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who turns to a woman for comfort after his father has abandoned him.
The film was produced through companies in Belgium, France and Italy. While The Kid with a Bike does not deviate from the naturalistic style of the Dardenne brothers’ earlier works, a comparatively bright aesthetic was employed, as well as a screenplay inspired by fairy tales. Unusually for a film by the directors, it also uses music. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was co-winner of the festival’s Grand Prix.
About the Story
The story begins with Cyril, an 11-year-old boy in a children’s home in the working class town of Seraing near Liege, attempting to reach his father by phone. His single father, no mother is ever mentioned, promised him that he would only live there for 30 days. The children’s home staff tells him to hang up the phone since once again his father is not going to answer and go outside to play with the other children.
Cyril refuses and when the phone is disconnected he bites a carer then runs from the director’s office, attempting to abscond by climbing over a fence with two carers on his heels. He is pulled from the fence and restrained before being returned to the children’s home, where he is later seen sleeping in a dormitory as forlorn music plays. Soon after Cyril absconds again successfully by lying to a carer that he needs the toilet one day after school, when he is supposed to be outside playing with the other kids. Instead he flees through a side door and takes a city bus alone in search of his father.
To get inside the building he uses the intercom to buzz the medical clinic and lies saying he fell off his bike. He goes directly to his father’s apartment though and bangs on the door until a neighbor tells him to go away because no one is there. When the caretakers find him, Cyril flees to a doctor’s office that buzzed him into the building, where he grabs onto a woman in the waiting room. She says she doesn’t mind if he holds her, only don’t squeeze so tight. Trying to alleviate the situation, the caretakers take Cyril to the empty apartment, confirming that his father has really abandoned him.
The next morning, the woman from the doctor’s office, Samantha, shows up with Cyril’s bike. She says she bought it from someone in the projects, but Cyril thinks it was stolen from his dad. He likes Samantha though, and asks if she would take him in on weekends. She agrees and Cyril begins to spend much time at home and in her beauty salon. Samantha and her partner Gilles are very good to Cyril providing for a carefree typical childhood experience.
In the local neighborhood he enjoys playing with other children, running errands, and most of all riding his beloved bike for hours on end. Still his refusal to accept his father’s abandonment continues to haunt him and prevent him from thriving in this healthy newfound environment even after discovering through an old personal ad that his father actually sold his bike.
One night in Samantha’s home, where Cyril has his own bedroom, he gets up and goes to Samantha’s bedroom, only to run back to his own room when he sees Samantha and Gilles undressed in bed with implied sex. Samantha follows him back to his bedroom to find out what is his problem and he tells her that he is okay but just really wants his father.
In response to this, without permission from neither the children’s home director nor Cyril’s psychologist, who has advised against doing so to protect his emotional stability, Samantha soon tracks down Cyril’s father by contacting the police department and drives Cyril to see him in another town.
The Kid with a Bike (2012)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Starring: Thomas Doret, Cécile de France, Jérémie Renier, Fabrizio Rongione, Egon Di Mateo, Olivier Gourmet, Baptiste Sornin, Samuel De Ryck, Claudy Delfosse, Myriem Akheddiou, Sandra Raco
Screenplay by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Production Design by: Igor Gabriel
Cinematography by: Alain Marcoen
Film Editing by: Marie-Hélène Dozo
Costume Design by: Maïra Ramedhan Levi
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic elements, violence, brief language and smoking.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: March 16, 2012
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