Young Mothers (2025)

SFS SOMERSET: YOUNG MOTHERS (Showcase #53 Encore) Date: Thu 26 Feb Time: 7.30pm Venue: Golden Village Cineleisure, Hall 6 Singapore Premiere Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Cast: Babette Verbeek, Elsa Houben, Janaina Halloy 2025 | Belgium | Drama | 105 mins | French with English subtitles | NC16 (Some Drug Use) Housed in a shelter for young mothers, Jessica, Perla, Julia, Ariane, and Naïma, all of whom have grown up in difficult circumstances, struggle to obtain a better life for themselves and their children. Awards: Winner of Best Screenplay and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (2025 Cannes Film Festival) Programmer's Note: The Dardennes’ handheld, camera-on-the-shoulder style continues in another hard-hitting drama about a pertinent social issue—this time, focusing on poor, young women with babies seeking temporary refuge in a maternity shelter. Each life is so painful that when their stories overlap, they form a tapestry of suffering and solidarity. Should they have kept their babies or gone through with abortion when they had the chance? The film asks this difficult, sensitive question, but each character arrives at her own answer. There is no political or religious moralising, just young Moms trying to place their faith in themselves—that whatever decisions they have taken, or will take, are for the best in the worst of times. (Eternality Tan, SFS Vice-Chair & Programming Director)