A documentary by Thomas Balmí¨s. Featuring Mari, Bayar, Hattie, and Ponijao. Rated G. Opens Friday, May 28, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

As every Seinfeld fan knows, not all children are born cute. But the stars of Babies reward close attention, for what they show us about their contrasting lives and about the special bubble in which all wee ones live.

French director Thomas Balmí¨s and a small crew spent more than a year in four disparate places to capture the opening salvos of potentially different lives.

Two of the girls, drama queen Mari and contemplative Hattie, are born into the urban, middle-class, and sensory-rich environments of Tokyo and San Francisco, respectively, with parents who join play groups and go on sometimes awkward outings with strangers and family. Ponijao lives in a more traditional setting, with her siblings and extended family in a dusty Namibian village, as does the only boy, Bayar, in an isolated yurt on the Mongolian steppe.

A child who seems to encounter the world primarily through his mouth, Ponijao is the only one whose father is never glimpsed—although in many cases, the filmmaker has stated, parents are hovering just outside the frame, to allow viewers to keep their POV just a foot or so off the ground. The last one to walk, Bayar is sometimes tied to the bed, but he is even then visited by an array of domesticated animals, whom he delightedly mauls, just as he is tortured by his older brother.

Although globe-hopping juxtapositions sometimes imply relative judgments, the non-narrated movie draws no obvious conclusions about child-rearing methods. Still, it is apparent that the kiddies in the developed world have almost too much to look at, and their parents are more self-conscious about the process. If you have any interest in where we all came from, you gotta see these Babies.