Dardenne Brothers Make ‘Young Mothers’ a Tender Portrait of Early Motherhood

There are two types of filmmakers: those that you watch expecting to be surprised and those that you already know very well what you will find when you watch them. The brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Two Days, One Night) are part of the second group. Over more than four decades, they built a recognizable cinema, marked by urgent social themes, proximity to invisible characters and attention to everyday gestures. In Young Motherswinner of the Best Screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Festival and shown at the 49th São Paulo International Film Festival, the brothers faithfully follow this line, offering a sensitive portrait of early motherhood in a Belgian shelter.

The focus of the story is on Jessica (Babette Verbeek), Pearl (Lucie Laruelle), Julia (Elsa Houben), Ariane (Janaïna Halloy Fokan) and Naïma (Samia Hilmi), five teenagers who seek a better life for themselves and their babies. Each one deals with different challenges: unrequited love, fear of repeating their own mothers’ mistakes, absence of the child’s or family’s provider, maternal rejection, or drug addiction. Between difficult decisions and affection, these young women try to learn how to care for their children even though they themselves have never received the same care.

The camera of Dardenne remains close, restless, breathing with the characters. It is a cinema that prefers small expressions to great moral lessons and redemptions. The shelter where they live functions as a rare breathing space, supported by public policies that contrast with the realities of countries still locked in debates about abortion and female autonomy. Within this microcosm, tenderness seems to have found its last refuge. The shelter becomes, at the same time, home and school — the home that many never had. Each attitude and movement of these young women is an attempt to break a cycle of absences. The directors’ gaze is understanding, without judgement, recognizing the humanity of choices that arise from a reality for which they were not prepared.

What is curious about Young Mothers is that, despite the poster showing the five teenagers side by side with their babies, in a kind of get-together, this image never materializes in the plot. This is a promise of communion that the script only suggests, but never completely fulfills. The interaction between the young women is minimal, and perhaps this is the film’s only demerit: despite the girls living together in this shelter, there are few scenes in which they meet each other — each of them is too busy dealing with their own private dramas.

In the rare moments when one extends a hand to the other, scenes of genuine tenderness emerge — small demonstrations of care that captivate by revealing, on screen, a discreet sisterhood, a glimpse of family possible within the shelter. These are moments that contrast, albeit briefly, the emotional isolation that marks their trajectories. It is as if the film wanted to record not the collective strength of these young women, but the loneliness that permeates them, the intimate effort of those trying to learn, little by little, how to make the most important decision of their lives: whether to keep the child or not.

In the end, Young Mothers may appear minor in the filmography of Dardennebut by giving up big twists and continuing to make the social cinema that marked their careers, they allow small acts to reveal to us what is essential: a simple gift that brings an honest smile, a hug with long-held tears, a sincere apology, a new chance. It is a delicate, sensitive and close to reality film, which reinforces how the brothers continue to find humanity in invisible places in society.

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• 49th São Paulo International Film Festival

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• Dardenne Brothers

• Jean-Pierre Dardenne

• Young Mothers

• Luc Dardenne