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plot summary: "This Oscar-nominated documentary explores the tragic policy decision by Romanian dictator Nicolei Ceaucescu to outlaw contraceptives and encourage his impoverished populace to have more children. 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 (more than 20,000 estimated) in the city of Bucharest." --- taken verbatim from Netflix.com
who should watch this?: every bratty child who is whining that they didn't get the latest Sony Playstation game...
who shouldn't watch this?: anyone who can't stand the site of children being hurt...
This was an incredibly depressing and difficult documentary to watch. Basically, it follows the lives of five homeless children over a year living in the subway station of Bucharest. I think they ranged in age from 8 to 14, or maybe 15. It is positively disturbing. There's Cristina, a young orphan girl who shaves her head to look more like a boy so she won't get raped or molested. There's Mihai, a young boy who laments his lack of education, but fears to go home because his father beats him. There's young Ana and her even younger brother Marian, who were driven to the streets because both their mother and step-father lost their jobs. And then there's the saddest kid of all, "Macarena", yes, nicknamed for that atrocious dance craze. She, too, is an orphan, so essentially, she has nowhere else to go...
Admittedly, there was a lot about this movie that confounded me. My initial reaction when watching was, "Why don't you kids just go home!?" When given the opportunity, the director interviewed some of the willing parents, and they all seemed to miss their child terribly. When Mihai tells someone he doesn't go home because he doesn't want to get beaten, the other person replies, "Well, maybe you deserve it for being bad! All children get beaten by their parents, it's called discipline..." and it got me thinking, maybe that person has a point. Maybe in Romania, punishment is more physical, like spankings and stuff, the way it used to be in America back in our parents' days. But then I start thinking, maybe it's worse than that? We never really get the truth about how it is.
Although we do get to meet Ana and Marian's mother and step-father, and it's...weird. You can't really tell who's thinking what, and the step-father is really creepy. If he's not physically abusing them, I could certainly see him mentally abusing the kids...at one point, he even flat-out states he almost left their mom because the kids were so out-of-control.
The other thing that frustrated me was the drug addictions these kids had...they're all addicted to "aurolac", or paint. They somehow scrounge together the money to buy a small bottle and they pour some into bags, and then just hold it up to their faces. Macarena, in particular, was a pathetic case, with paint all smeared on her face, walking around in a daze. A school for street children won't allow Macarena to attend because she won't stay clean...and the thing is, there are quite a few resources for these kids, and they simply don't take any of those options! It's mind-boggling! At one point, when a British woman "rescues" Ana and Marian and takes them to a shelter, the employees explain that they can't accept the children because the children have to want to be there, and Ana and Marian wanted to be on the streets! They explain that they're addicted to the streets! And one second, I'm like, aghast, thinking, "Addicted to a life of misery?! Wha?!" but then I thought about women who grow up in abusive homes and then marry abusive-husbands, and...
Like I said, this film is very difficult and thought-provoking and frustrating...don't rent this if you're already in a depressed mood. (janice.06.05)
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