La vie promise is a 2002 French film directed by Olivier Dahan, written by Olivier Dahan and Agnès Fustier-Dahan, and starring by Isabelle Huppert, Pascal Greggory and Maud Forget.

When two pimps attack Sylvia in her apartment, Laurence stabs one of them, perhaps fatally, to defend her mother.

They begin a journey as hitchhikers, first trying to track down Sylvia's first husband, Piotr, who had a son with her, eight years ago.

Sylvia and Laurence cross paths with Joshua, a man out on bail who decides not to return to prison and is trying to avoid the police.

Sylvia continues her search for Piotr, occasionally trading sex in exchange for rides, and sometimes on foot to the point of collapse.