Arta Dobroshi in the Dardenne brothers' gem.

The Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have created a number of miracles in the social-realist tradition since their feature debut, La Promesse, in 1996 and Lorna’s Silence is the latest example. In this drama, an Albanian woman (played wonderfully by Arta Dobroshi) has gained citizenship in Belgium through a sham marriage to a junkie. But when the criminals she’s involved with want to off the addict so that she can marry a Russian man also seeking citizenship, Lorna’s life turns from hopeful to heart-wrenching.

Many of the elements of the movie would have been pure melodrama in other less-skilled hands. But the Dardennes have made a quintet of films and they’ve yet to produce a single false scene. Some critics have started to carp that the brothers are treading too much over familiar territory in their work. But if the Dardennes aren’t changing as much as some other directors, perhaps its because they are the rare ones who were born whole.