:
Edet Belzberg,
Edet Belzberg
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: Not Rated
: New Video Group
: Documentary, Politics and Social Issues, Political & Social Issues
: 104 min.
: English
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When Romanian dictator Nicolei Ceaucescu outlawed the use of contraceptives and encouraged his subjects to have more children in a bid to increase his nation's population, his campaign had a terrible and dangerous side effect -- thousands of children were born to broken or dysfunctional families in a nation mired in political and economic instability, resulting in a large and rapidly growing population of homeless children in the city of Bucharest, with their numbers estimated at over 20,000. Children Underground is a documentary that explores this ongoing tragedy, offering a view of the larger problem and taking a closer look at the lives of five children living on the streets of Bucharest. Sixteen-year-old Cristina survived physical torture and a stay in a mental institution before escaping to Bucharest's Victory Plaza, where she's the hard-bitten leader of a gang of young hoodlums. Fourteen-year-old Macarena is a lost soul who gets through her days by sniffing paint fumes. Twelve-year-old Mihai comes from a home so fearsome he has opted to be homeless rather than stay with his abusive father, who once chained him to a radiator so he would not run away. Ten-year-old Ana is often beaten by older children, and like Macarena, blots out her misery by sniffing paint; she tries to protect her eight-year-old brother, Marian, who already bears the emotional scars of his violent and chaotic childhood. The first feature from documentarian Edet Belzberg, Children Underground received an enthusiastic reception and many positive reviews after its screenings at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Drugs, Poverty, and Abuse in Romania
by jezebel
March 3, 2003 - 11:18 AM PST
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15 out of 15 members found this review helpful
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This film is not meant to make you feel better about these children. It is meant to tear your heart out of your chest and throw it on the pavement.
The children featured in this documentary are in the age range of about 9-16, they come from either families in extreme poverty or from foster care and orphanages. They all huff paint out of bags they steal. Soemtimes they run errands for the subway shopkeepers to make money to buy more paint or, occasionally, food.
About the most interesting thing is how their social system works among the children. There is a leader, there are the troublemakers who get disciplined, there is a lost cause - a girl who is hopelessly addicted to paint. Yet, there is no denying that they are children who like to play as much as any other child, they slide down escalators, take the train to a park, wrestle with and chase each other.
Somehow, though, this life of drug addiction, fear, and poverty seems better to some of them than going back to their parents. Those who have no parents struggle to fit in with families of other children who have family units like the one featured in the subway. The documentary goes to the homes of 2 of the families...which gives you a feeling of why the children who left ran away.
One can only wonder what their lives will be like when they are "grownups", will they ever learn to live as functioning members of society? |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 8.03)
73 Votes
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