Reviewed December 19, 2004
How many streetkids can dance on the head of a pin?
"Children Underground" is a documentary about the lives of five street children in Bucharest, Romania. It is an unflinching look at children living in truly desperate circumstances. It is not an easy film to watch. It's the kind of film that makes you want to get up and do something when it is finished. This is a triumph of sorts for a film-maker but Director Belzberg douses the torch she lights by failing to focus on possible courses of action for people moved by her film. This grave error is compounded by her selection, both of the children and of the scenes involving social workers.
The five children are members of a group that lives in and around a subway station in the central part of the city. We see them sleeping, eating, working a little, sniffing their intoxicant of choice, Aurolac, fighting, crying, playing. We also see all of them with social workers, on excursions, at drop-in centers and on the street. Most of these good people are apparently pretty much convinced that these kids are write-offs and, with what Belzberg gives us, that's pretty much the conclusion we are left with as well. But even though Belzberg tells us at the beginning of the documentary that there are 20,000 of these kids in Bucharest, she doesn't tell us how many social workers there are or what the capacities of the programs for street children are. If all the street children of Bucharest chose to take advantage of the services Belzberg shows us are available, those facilities would be completely overwhelmed.
So what's my conclusion from this? Belzberg has given us a searing portrait of a half-dozen specific children in distress. She has failed, however, to make her portraits universal or explore this social problem deeply enough to lead the viewer to action. All one can do is throw up one's hands in horror and hope to forget what one has seen. If you are unaware of the problems faced by street children in Romania and elsewhere, watch this film. But don't let it depress you into inaction. There is a lot that can be done for and with street children. Hey, it's not their fault. They're just little kids.
For more information about street children in Romania, visit "Street Children of Romania"
(Review by Brian Horne - all rights reserved.)