Simple, rough as guts camera work. A script you could mistake for documentary and performances that scream naive authenticity.
These are the pillars of this wonderfully realist portrait about a group of young mothers trying to navigate their emotions and family lives.
As I was watching, I could not believe at points that this film was fiction. Every element is created with rough inbuilt imperfections which feel as though they were discovered, not planned for. Even the rough performance style adds to this where it feels like these girls are real people, in real situations getting hyper aware of themselves in front of the camera.
We are allowed to step into these fragile girls’ lives without judgment and without filmmaking techniques that obscure the emotions for ideas. It’s a brilliant thing to be a part of as a viewer, something we rarely get to see, a film simply showing events without metaphor or heightened dramatic techniques trying to reach to a loftier idea. No – here we get to simply exist in each moment. To observe these characters’ emotions and their complicated worlds, and understand these foreign situations in a real way.
Review by Billy Newbery
Young Mothers
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne