Young Mothers

Young Mothers (original title: Jeunes mères), from the Dardenne brothers, is set in a shelter for teenage mothers in Banneux, Belgium. The girls who live there have barely left school and already hold a baby, or are about to. They all come from poor or messy families. They are all trying to work out how to keep going.

The film follows five of them. Jessica was abandoned by her mother as a baby, grew up in care and now wants to find that woman. Perla has a little boy, Noé, and wants her boyfriend, Robin, just out of a detention center, to step up. Julie and her boyfriend, Dylan, a baker's apprentice, have found an apartment and plan to marry while she trains as a hairdresser. Ariane has an alcoholic mother and is thinking of placing her baby, Lili, with a foster family. Naïma has been accepted into a course to become a train ticket inspector, her dream job.

The stories run side by side, at the pace of everyday life: bottles, talks with the staff, visits from relatives, decisions that cannot wait. The camera stays close to them, without judging.