BABIES

BABIES offers a quiet, engaging look at four children growing up in Namibia, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Francisco. With almost no dialogue or narration, it holds your attention through smiles, laughter, nourishment, play, vulnerability, and the first hard-won steps toward independence.

The film’s strongest message is the common humanity of children across cultures and economic circumstances. Its images of creation, especially in Namibia and Mongolia, contrast beautifully with the concrete worlds of Tokyo and San Francisco. The nurturing love of the mothers and the innocence of the babies also make a strong pro-life statement.

The cost is much naturalistic nudity, including breastfeeding mothers and naked babies and toddlers, along with a few troubling scenes of cruelty. See it with discernment, especially if younger children or adolescents may need help processing what they see. WORTH THE TRIP for families prepared to discuss those concerns.

This French documentary follows the first years of four babies: Baya, Hattie, Mari, and Ponijao, who live in Namibia, Mongolia, Tokyo, and San Francisco. Their worlds differ greatly in culture and material circumstances, but their development follows familiar patterns.

There is almost no dialogue or narration. Instead, the film watches the children discover nourishment, play, relationships, movement, and the world around them as they grow toward their first steps.

Three stars means BABIES is a good, engaging documentary with clear limitations. Its central contrast—similar growth patterns unfolding across four very different environments—holds your interest, even without much dialogue or narration.

The steady flow of smiles and laughter is endearing. The natural settings of Namibia and Mongolia are awesome beside the concrete worlds of Tokyo and San Francisco, and the music enhances the images of the babies at play and learning. The film’s simple structure keeps you looking forward to each new victory of growth and awareness.

BABIES highlights the wonder of birth and the development of children. Its four babies reveal a unity shared by brothers and sisters around the world: wonder, nourishment, playfulness, vulnerability, and the struggle toward independence. The film’s innocence and the mothers’ caring, nurturing love make a strong pro-life statement against abortion.

The documentary also acknowledges humanity’s sinfulness and cruelty. A child bites another child, an older child repeatedly strikes an infant with a scarf, and a helpless cat is cruelly dragged with a noose around its neck. The film raises the question of when violence and war might enter these idyllic worlds, presenting the hope that innocence and love will overcome the shadow of sin and violence.

BABIES does not mention God or religion, which gives it a light humanist quality. Still, viewers with an eye of faith can see God glorified in the babies, their mothers, and the goodness of the bodies God gave us. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).

BABIES is a tender, visually absorbing portrait of four children discovering the same basic wonders of life in very different worlds. Its naturalistic nudity and minor cruelty call for discernment, but its celebration of babies, mothers, and shared human dignity makes it WORTH THE TRIP.