To Love Each Other: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne on "Young Mothers" | Interviews | Roger Ebert

"It would be hard to overstate the influence of Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne on traditions of realism in European cinema. The Belgian brothers, now in their seventies, have been making compassionate, uncompromising dramas about the social and economic conditions of modern life for nearly 40 years, approaching each with a direct, unvarnished style that's been imitated far and wide across the international arthouse circuit, if seldom rivaled in its emotional impact."

"With their handheld camerawork, use of available light, and aversion to soundtracks or other distractions, their deceptively unadorned style has fashioned an immediate, attentive gaze they've habitually directed at people living on society's margins. It's both the kinds of characters they choose to observe and the bare realism of their approach that have led some critics to consider them among cinema's great humanists."

"Centered on a home for young mothers, the film follows five teenage women navigating early parenthood amid precarity. As Jessica (Babette Verbeek), Perla (Lucie Laruelle), Julie (Elsa Houben), Ariane (Janaïna Halloy Fokan), and Naïma (Samia Hilmi) learn to care for their newborn babies and themselves, they also forge an unexpected kind of sisterhood inside the home, one that proves uniquely nurturing as all five grapple with their own senses of abandonment and uncertainty."

Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have produced nearly 40 years of compassionate, uncompromising dramas that examine social and economic conditions with unvarnished directness. Their handheld camerawork, use of available light, and aversion to soundtracks create an immediate, attentive gaze that focuses on people living on society's margins. Young Mothers is set in the Seraing suburb of Liège and centers on a home for five teenage mothers navigating early parenthood amid precarity while forming an unexpected, nurturing sisterhood. The film earned Best Screenplay at Cannes and continues the Dardennes' practice of eliciting intensely naturalistic performances and empathetic observation of maternal instincts and social vulnerability.

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