Young Mothers (2025)

I like Dardenne brothers films because they always shed light on those who live in the margins of our society where people often do not even care to look. This time we follow and observe four young girls who learn how to become mothers in a maternity shelter in Belgium. Unlike their previous films, this one follows multiple characters and their stories. It was still effective to show what these poor teenager mothers generally go through, but I certainly wanted to learn more about their stories; although I already know that it’s generally not possible in their films because they only span a relatively short period of time, and don’t do deep expositions. So the beauty is that like this one, their movies plunge us deep into the characters’ reality, and let us experience it with compassion. There were many tender and emotional moments of all the characters, but what moved me most was this poetic analogy of the young mothers building new foundations for their lives and building new lives for their newborns.

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