Which directors still in activity can say that they have dedicated their career to tell the indigence and misery? Not many. Ken Loach in England said that The Old Oak In 2022 it was his latest film. It seems that at eighty -eight he decided to retire. In France there is Robert Guédiguian, who, with tones sometimes even openly political, has focused on who is in difficulty. In Belgium stand out instead Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Regular guests of the Cannes Film Festival (they won the golden palm with Rosette in 1999 and with The enfant – a love story in 2005), also This year I am in competition with Jeunes Mères.
It is a choral film. It describes the life of a group of young people who have to deal with motherhood. They have a complicated economic situation and are often not helped by the fathers of their children, indeed they are abandoned. We see them laughing, getting angry, moving: everyday life is staged.
The strength of the Dardenne cinema is that it emphasizes the human being. In the center there are feelings, suffering, the search for a better future in which it is sometimes difficult to believe. This is how the two filmmakers feed their spirituality. Without perhaps speaking directly of religion, however they suggest that they have faith. With the camera, they outline a hope that goes beyond cultures, invites the encounter and above all proves to be alongside those who are on their knees.
Isn’t this the basis of Christian charity? The cinema for the Dardenne brothers is a protective tool, it is an art that performs a social function. And it’s not a little. We must not trust those who claim that the Dardenne always shoot the same film, because this is often the characteristic of the real artists. Jeunes Mères it’s a new piece, A small fresco that invokes pity and harmony, always made with the rigor that distinguishes them. It is like a caress in these tumultuous times, in the wake of Tori and Lokita.
Morality and ethics mix with aesthetics, the use of images. It empathizes with the fears of the protagonists. Parenting is described as a stormy joy, like the definitive experience to discover adults. A film on giving, not on having. A film full of heart, with a powerful soul, which transforms the silences into a place of reflection. Impeccable.
