I have seen this movie long ago, and I would be delighted to see it again. The Italian police catch a boat somewhere around their country, and it happens to turn out, that there are a bunch of kids travelling secret-fully, all the way to somewhere on the west. The are all from Asia, as they are all belonging to the Asian race, and they were put there by smugglers. The young police officer is shocked, and starts to have a conversation with one of the little ones. He is only asking names of the countries, but to his great astonishment, the boy answers in Italian. "Philippino islands" - he says, and tells his story. An Italian priest - Father Eduardo- was working at that part of the island where Felipe is from and he taught him to speak Italian. As there is nothing else to do, they put the kids into an orphanage, which is far away from any imagination of the "west" it is big, poor, the only game is the table-soccer, but the ball has been missing for a long time. When several kids break away Felipe goes with them, and another journey starts: a journey to survive. Five kids four boys and a girl from the orphanage, no money, no food. They start stealing, selling they are trying to do everything to survive. Finally they get caught by some criminal organisation which promises them food and a place to stay, but in return they have to work, and the little girl is taken away to be a prostitute.
This movie is a little boys road to the white peoples society. As he was asking first Father Eduardo, than the police officer: Why hasn't God given me blue eyes? Why is that at one part of the world kids live on garbage hills and make a living of searching after plastic litter all day long, and at the other part they are bored all they long, and get 3 meters high pile of Christmas presents?
There are some memorable moments in this film, for instance when they are spending one of their first nights on the street, and one of them has diarrhea. Felipe recalls that he used to have a friend back in his country of origin, who had a strong diarrhea, and had to go out all the time. The others laugh, because this is so much funny at the age of 11-12. And what happened to him? - they ask after a good laugh. He died - Felipe replies.
This movie is really worth watching. Loved it.
