Tori and Lokita, the refugee drama that won a special 75th Anniversary Prize for the Dardenne brothers at Cannes, will be distributed in North America by Sideshow and Janus Films.

Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne directed the film about two youngsters from Africa who have traveled alone to start a new life in Belgium.

Tori, a young boy, is played by Pablo Schils, while his companion-in-exile, an adolescent girl, is played by Joely Mbundu.

The film was produced by the Dardennes in collaboration with Delphine Tomson and Denis Freyd.

Tori and Lokita has been described by Sideshow and Janus Films as “an immediate classic,” one that “shows these master filmmakers working at their highest level, focused with a newfound intensity on the issues plaguing our time.”

“The Dardenne brothers have had a profound influence on an entire generation of filmmakers, and we cannot wait to bring this film to the public, including both fans of the Dardennes’ body of work, and younger cinephiles who are sure to recognize the brothers’ profound influence on cinema today,” added the distributors.

Describing Tori and Lokita as the “angriest movie the Dardenne brothers have ever made, critic David Ehrlich wrote that the film “leverages the irreducible nature of human dignity against the ever-worsening apathy of human civilization. Like much of their work — including the Palme d’Or winner Rosetta and the 2002 masterpiece, The Son — the film’s threadbare story hinges on effectively parentless children whose need for support leads them towards danger. And like the best of their work, which this sobering return to form represents from its curious first shot to its furious last beat, its premise pulls tighter until even the simplest actions are endowed with breathless intensity.

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The acquisition is a feather in Janus’s cap, already brimming with rights deals for more than 60-score films by some of the world’s most respected filmmakers, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Abbas Kiarostami, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, and Yasujiro Ozu. Sideshow recently teamed up with Janus Films to release Oscar-nominated Drive My Car as well as another Cannes prizewinner, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO.