Their films Rosetta (1999) and The Child (2005) were both awarded the Palme d’Or and The Kid With A Bike (2011) was awarded the Grand Prix, while many of the other films picked up a string of other awards in Cannes, including awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

So expectations are running high for Young Mothers as it premieres in Cannes this year. The Dardennes started out as documentary makers and while their new film is a feature film it could easily have also been a documentary as it was shot in a real maternal support home in their native Belgium. They auditioned 300 young girls to choose the five young actresses most of them dancers for the roles of the five young teenage mothers.

The Dardennes said “When we went to visit what is called a “maternal support home” near Liège, it was as part of a research for the writing of a screenplay with one single character: a young woman whose one aspect of life was being a mother of a baby with whom she was trying to connect.”

But after spending a few hours there and speaking to the young single mothers and the caseworkers and psychologist who worked there they were inspired to come back again and stay longer. They said “Because if there are many moments of communal life, there are also and above all the solitary lives of teenagers struggling with their anxieties, hopes and sometimes illusions about their new condition as mothers - most often single mothers - about the family from which they come, to which they will or will not return, about the father who is often absent or non-existent, about their future with the child or without the child, who will be entrusted to a foster family, about their educational and professional future too and their ability to live independently.”

Eventually they chose a group of five young teenage mothers and decided to tell their stories. There’s Jessica played by Babette Verbeek, who was adopted as an infant as her mother abandoned her and she is determined to keep her baby no matter what.

Ariane played by Janaina Halloy Fokan has an alcoholic mother Nathalie played by Christelle Cornil, who lives on welfare and wants her daughter to keep the baby but Arianne wants a better life for her child and is looking for middle class foster parents for her baby.

Perla played by Lucie Laruelle hoped her teenage boyfriend Robin played by Gunter Duret would stand by her but he takes off as soon as possible.

A young couple of former drug addicts Julie played by Elsa Houben and Dylan played by Jef Jacobs are determined to raise the baby together but whether or not they can stay clean of drugs is the big question. And the five stories are rounded off by a short story of the young mother Naïma played by Samia Hilmi.

The Dardennes teamed up with their long-time collaborators cinematographer Benoit Dervaux and editor Marie Hélène Dozo.

The film screens late in the festival but given the Dardennes track record in Cannes this will be the film everyone will be watching out for.

Young Mothers / Jeunes Mères ( Belgium / France )
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne
Cast: Babette Verbeek, Elsa Houben, Janaina Halloy Fokan, Lucie Laruelle, Samia Hilmi, Jef Jacobs, Gunter Duret, Christelle Cornil, India Hair, Joely Mbundu, Claire Bodson, Eva Zingaro, Adrienne D’Anna, Mathilde Legrand, Hélène Cattelain, Selma Alaoui