Open Air | Jeunes Mères
A moving and hopeful mosaic film from two-time Palme d’Or winners Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Jeunes Mères tells the story of four young (soon-to-be) mothers fighting for a better future – for themselves and their children.
Jessica, Ariane, Perla and Julie are residents at a mother-and-child home in the Liège region. Four teenage girls, each with their own story and struggles, who find support in one another. Pregnant Jessica is desperately searching for her birth mother, hoping to understand why she was given up for adoption. Ariane wants to give up her baby, much to the dismay of her own mother. Perla believed a child might bring her the stability of a family life, but the baby’s father disappears the moment he’s released from juvenile detention. Julie is the only one in a somewhat stable relationship, though both she and her partner are former drug addicts.
Is there such a thing as the ‘right time’ to become a parent? Can society support those who are still children themselves as they take on parenthood? These are the questions the Dardenne brothers raise in the poignant, realistic Jeunes Mères. The film was awarded Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival. On paper, the synopsis may sound bleak, but this is one of the Dardennes’ most optimistic films. At a time of faltering democracy and war, the brothers continue to believe in human compassion, connection and empathy. As the Belgian magazine HUMO wrote: ‘The Dardennes deliver exactly what we need right now: light in the darkness.’