VividSimon Simply Perfect

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

shneur This is a very powerful documentary of the lives of children in Romania in the late 1990's living in a subway station. By careful filming and concentrating on five children ranging in age from 8 to 15, and by using mostly their own words and interactions, the stark realities of their survival are allowed to show themselves rather than being extracted by force. The follow-up material at the end of the film as well as in the supplements on the DVD are as significant for the effect on the viewer as the body of the documentary. Although the home conditions from which these young people fled are repugnant to our sensibilities, it's clear there is more to their endurance of street life than that. When one boy is asked what he likes best about living in the streets, he thinks a moment and then shouts, "I get to live FREE!" and does a little dance to illustrate. How sad that children should have to sacrifice such basic amenities as health care and education to get a little control over their own lives. In an interview, the film-maker confesses that the most difficult task of all was not intervening as these small people were beaten and insulted, and as they remained perpetually intoxicated on volatile solvents. I agree with the choice. Intervention in the immediate term would not have altered the course of any of their lives, and the impact of the film would have been destroyed. I hope that BOTH lessons here are not lost on the audience -- not only what privations follow a society's collapse, but also what children and ALL humans are willing to suffer in order to gain some personal autonomy.

Amir S. I watched this docu last night; aired on TVO Toronto. It initially drew me in due to the filming format... no commentary or host; just raw footage documenting the life of these children on the street in Bucharest. I like this format. It allows you to feel or experience being there, rather than being interrupted every minute by a host voice. Good job.The whole account really touched me. You know you hear about these kids, but was interesting to actually see their lives. What really bothered me is how few citizens actually stopped to help or talk to the kids; most just ignored the kids. Each time Ana cried, tears began with me. I just wanted to reach out, but couldn't through the TV. Grrrr.This docu is worth watching, but somewhat emotionally tugging. Would be a good documentary to show in middle school, to remind kids here in the West just how lucky they are.Mostly, it served as an inspiration reminder to me of why I like to help others. Which, as I am finding, is often a very lonely road versus my friends who only like to spend their spare time at nightclubs.

spacism Spoilers (for a documentary)I have just watched the DVD for Children Underground and found it to be very disturbing, as it should be. The situation of the homeless children isn't all that different from the homeless here in the states. The scope of the problem in Romania is larger, but the film only focuses on a small number of children. They are drug addicted, mischievous, and seemingly addicted to living on the street. A group of social workers in a shelter bring up the issue of how children become accustomed to living on the street are not able to adapt to shelter life. I can't recall another documentary touching on the idea of how difficult it is to help certain people, even when resources are available to do so. Medicine is expensive and clinics can not afford to waste it on addicts, shelters can not afford to provide for those deemed incapable of rehabilitation. Even if the children want help, and many don't, or don't appear to know how to accept it, they must be prepared even before being brought into a shelter. The damage done to these kids isn't easy to diagnose or repair. They may have suffered at home, been made despondent extreme poverty, and have psychiatric conditions. Once they are on the street they need to be "deprogrammed" before they can begin to change their ways. In my opinion, they will never be all right, they will always be 'shell shocked' by their experiences.We hear about one girl that is at times proud of how "street" she is and at other times hardworking and attending school. Unfortunately, she is routinely suspended from school due to her addiction to huffing paint. The drug of choice for these kids is Aurolac, or paint. I saw a documentary on Seattle's street kids and many of them were addicted to heroin. Heroin is a much more dangerous drug, and one wonders if the kids addicted to paint in the movie will eventually move on to harder drugs.Ana doesn't talk about her parents or her situation. She has run away from home many times, and she has taken her younger brother with her to live on the streets. When the filmmakers meet her parents we learn that they are unemployed and unable to support their kids. The stepfather says that he doesn't beat her, but talks down to her, and says that he almost left their mother because of the kids. The parents ask the children whether they want to stay or go to back to the city, and it is hard to tell what they really want her to do. I felt like they were pushing her away, getting her to make the decision so that they can't be held liable for abandonment charges. The stepfather even says "this isn't abandonment" in response to her decision. Perhaps the most disconcerting moment for me was watching the "Where are they now?" extras on the DVD and learning that Ana's mother gave birth to twins in 2002. I just thought, after all I have seen and learned, Why? Why would she bring two more children into the world when she literally can not provide even a basic existence for her current children?The movie has the stories of other street children. Many similarities are found in the stories. There are, in fact, tens of thousands of similar stories in Romania. We are left to wonder the eventual outcome. Will these children be ignored and brushed aside by the people walking the streets, and by their government. Will the generation of homeless be left to die out? Will they get pregnant and raise their children on the streets, creating a new generation of street kids? What are the current conditions in Romania? Is there a steady stream of new children coming to live on the streets?

no_one_special This film shows the daily routine of a group of homeless Romanian children living in a train station. Anyone who has ever seen or read about the homeless knows how depressing it is, and seeing children in this state of affairs only heightens it. The children here are addicted to Aurolac paint, which they inhale to get high. While the subject matter couldn't be any more depressing, Children Underground is very well made and holds one's attention.