Young Mothers

For 40 years the two-time Palme D’or winning Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have quietly redefined European social realist cinema with their emotionally powerful, empathetically observed dramas shedding light on those living in the margins of society. Winner of the Best Screenplay award at Cannes, the Dardennes’ latest tells the small but deeply affecting stories of a group of young mothers at a care shelter in the brothers’ hometown of Liège.  These young women, many still teenagers in school, have chosen to give birth despite social stigma, patriarchal cowardice, poverty and addiction. With little but each other and the women who run the home to rely on they must confront their own issues of abandonment and self-worth as they grapple with the challenges facing both young mothers and the future of the world their children will inherit.