Another is the dignity that the filmmakers allow these young women, even when they make the bad choices one would expect from hormonally challenged teenage girls. Never judgmental and deeply moving, this lean Dardenne drama wields a big impact.

Despite their clear affection for these women, the Dardenne brothers never sugarcoat their characters’ unenviable circumstance or latch onto phony bromides to alleviate our anxiety. And yet “Young Mothers” contains its share of sweetness and light.

The Dardennes’ mobile camera and exclusive use of natural light is sometimes indistinguishable from what often passes for docudrama-style “realism.” What rescues the film from such an undue comparison is the quality of empathy on view.

After a string of more overtly melodramatic entries, which I found deeply involving, but critics felt otherwise, "The Young Mother’s Home" feels like a reset: stripped-back, deeply humane, and unmistakably Dardenne.