Children Underground (2001)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Edet Belzberg

Release Date:

5 October 2003 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Subway | Child Care | Homelessness | Subway Train | Runaway

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Cristina Ionescu	...	Herself
Mihai Alexandre Tudose	...	Himself
Violeta 'Macarena' Rosu	...	Herself
Ana Turturica	...	Herself
Marian Turturica	...	Himself
Alexandru Beschina	...	Himself
Florin Ionut Calciu	...	Himself
Adrian Chiru	...	Himself
Romulus Cristescu	...	Himself
Ilie Fonfonile	...	Himself
Doru Grigore	...	Herself
Anca Hotnog	...	Herself
Claudia Luca	...	Herself
Angela Preda	...	Herself
Adrian Susanu	...	Himself

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Romanian

Color:

Color

Company:

Belzberg Films

Children of the World

Focused on the lives of five Romanian children –Cristina, an orphan who led a band of children living in a subway station, and who grew up and survived passing as a boy; the charming boy Mihai, who loves poetry, wants education and who has run away from an abusive father; Macarena, perhaps the most dramatic of all, a drug addict who had not even realized she had a mother; and Ana and her brother Marian, who left behind their town and the extreme poverty at home, only to find worst conditions in the streets-, "Children Underground" shows how the Romanian government has yet to find a way to deal with these children, who after a month or so in the street are difficult to rehabilitate. The movie follows the kids everywhere, and is a silent witness of all the violence and abuse they have to deal with on a daily basis. The filmmaker Edet Belzberg opens the movie with a propaganda warning, telling us that the children of the Bucharest streets are the result of the anti-abortion and birth control laws of dictator Ceaucescu. It does not take much to deduce that Belzberg means that this terrible situation is a consequence of the Socialist regime, but –as in "Power Trip"- the film becomes more interesting when, after a while, one realizes that neither Capitalism has sound answers for the situation of deprived children all over the world. If Belzberg had told us instead that we all have certain responsability for every single injustice in the world, including what she is about to show, it would have been a more telling relationship between filmmaker and viewer. As it is, it is a good documentary nevertheless, that unintentionally becomes another statement of the need of humanity to find better ways to share world's wealth.