Jeunes mères (Young Mothers) | 2025 Cannes Film Festival Review

Bonjour Tristesse: The Dardenne Bros. Explore Teenage Pregnancy

In their latest neo-realist exercise on plights of the disenfranchised, the Dardenne Bros. return to gentler themes with Young Mothers. A coterie of teen mothers living in a shelter find themselves confronted with unexpected obstacles as they assume their new roles, all quite unprepared to deal with a drastically shifting reality. Freely drifting in between each of their episodic trajectories, it’s another tenderly administered portrait of the human condition from directors who have mastered the ability to capture such experiences without resorting to fussy declarations or cheap sentimentality. Still, surprises are few and far between as it builds to a quiet but empathetic resolution for each of its focal mothers.

A clear, connective through line for each of the young women is their innate inability to mother because it would appear none of them were properly mothered themselves, each living for a year in a Liege facility as they learn life skills to care for their children or explore other services available to them. Jessica (Babette Verbeek), who is almost due to give birth, has just met her biological mother Morgane (India Hair) and suffers from severe abandonment issues. Adding to this tension is Morgane’s continued resistance in acknowledging her daughter. Perla (Lucie Laruelle) is devastated her child’s father breaks up with her as soon as he’s released from a juvenile facility, and her knee jerk reaction is to give her son up for adoption. Perla’s older sister (Joey Mbundu, star of the directors’ last feature, Tori & Lokita, 2022) can only assist in a limited capacity. Julia (Elsa Hobbit) seems to have a proper shot at success if she can stay sober and learn to deal with sometimes debilitating anxiety attacks. Of all the fathers floating about in the mix, she’s at least got Dylan (Jef Jacobs), who has not only agreed to recognize the child as his own but build a life together with Julia.

Perhaps the most complicated scenario is presented with Ariane (Janaina Halloy), whose mother Nathalie (Christelle Cornil, of Two Days, One Night, 2014) is desperate for her grandchild not to be given up for adoption. Ariane adamantly desires the opposite, and Nathalie’s anguish, despite not having a stable home life to serve as the sole guardian for the child, is distressing to behold. It is the standout storyline which perhaps deserved a feature of its own as we witness Ariane make a tough decision to choose her own path. It’s also the third film this year in which Claire Dodson plays a kind administrator (following Adam’s Sake and Dossier 137).

The final act is a revolving door of resolutions for each of these storylines, some of the women clearly facing better future outcomes than others, but the Dardenne Bros. don’t allow anyone to be hanging out in an ambiguous, hopeless void. ‘There are hugs, tears, and forgiveness, and the film even gives us a poetic sendoff with a rendition of Apollinaire’s The Farewell.

Arguably, there’s nothing innately wrong with Young Mothers, other than it feeling like a return to safer socio-cultural predicaments which characterized the directors’ earlier output, which often involved children. Considering the exploration of radicalism in The Young Ahmed (2019) and the violence of Tori & Lokita (2022), it’s a much less divisively designed endeavor, reminiscent in scope and tone to Peter Kerekes’ recent docudrama 107 Mothers (2021). As usual for their output, it’s a hopeful portrait of human resilience despite all the odds against their favor.

Reviewed on May 23rd at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival (78th edition) – Competition. 105 Mins.

★★★/☆☆☆☆☆