Toto and His Sisters

A perfect example of how finding the right central character can elevate a story, transforming it into a richly emotive, poignant experience. Toto and his sisters is a beautifully crafted, intimate film that takes a tragic situation and finds the warm, beating heart within. Great stuff!

A young boy lives in crushing poverty with his two older sisters. His mother is in prison for drug offences. His oldest sister vows to run the home properly in her absence. The sister closest to him in age stays away from home for nights on end. The schools, overworked and weary, try their best to provide care and discipline, but it is much too little. This is a family forced to make a cooker in their apartment by hewing solid rock. The mother's legacy is that the house is a drug den - we see Toto, barely ten years old, go to sleep while injecting addicts sit on his bed, used syringes strewn around him. The oldest sister, so resolute at the beginning that she would sort out the family problems, instead becomes an addict herself. In the centre of all this is Toto; mischievous, adrift, feral. You fear from him. And then, in the midst of all this bleakness, Toto joins a dance class. And to see him dance is to glimpse hope. A film that seemed a stream of unrelenting misery suddenly soars and offers moments of joy. Toto and His Sisters presents humanity in all its squalor and glory. A quite astonishing documentary that burns itself onto your soul.

This documentary depicts a period of a few years in the life of three Roma siblings. When their mother is arrested with drug charges, Toto and his two teen sisters are left to figure out life on their own. Living in a bad neighbourhood, in very poor conditions, surrounded themselves by drug use and with no one to turn to, their situation is desperate.

The film follows their development and presents with rare and brutally candid images a different world, that many maybe prefer not see. But you cannot look away. The images, filmed by both the filmmakers and the kids themselves, are gripping. Some of the footage is so powerful and authentic that it is hard to describe.

If you get the chance to see this documentary, don't miss it. It's a life lesson on many levels.