Children Underground

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Children Underground

2001

1h 44m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

94%

Tomatometer

17 Reviews

92%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

After the fall of communism in Romania, unwanted children in state orphanages escaped into the streets. These children are the subject of this documentary, which follows them into a subterranean world of hierarchy, hunger and drug use. The film focuses on five diverse children, including 12-year-old Mihai, who ran away from home due to his father's beatings, and Cristina, who passes for a boy. The filmmakers follow and record their daily lives, and the strained possibilities for reintegration.

Peter Rainer

New York Magazine/Vulture

06/16/2002

Almost unbearably sad.

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Geoff Pevere

Toronto Star

01/18/2002

Heartbreaking, urgent, unsentimental and unflinching.

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Robert Koehler

Variety

09/24/2001

Edet Belzberg's fearless aesthetic is also a measure of her film's brilliant indictment of any society that can allow its most vulnerable to slip into oblivion.

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Christopher Null

Filmcritic.com

01/01/2006

2/5

Film Threat

12/06/2005

3/5

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

07/01/2005

3/5

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Elaine M

Jan 6

Must watch ! Has me in tears opened my eyes abd gave me strong desire look then up They need exposure and hopefully some kind of funding abd a chance most of us get and take for granted I’d love them to do an update

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delysid d

04/26/2017

Sad and shocking. Very cool documentary

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01/02/2016

This would bring tears to a glass eye. A very, very sad situation for the children profiled here. Living in a subway station and huffing paint fumes all day. I can't even imagine living that kind of existence.

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04/15/2014

An estimated 20,000 children are living homeless in Bucharest due in part to the illegalization of contraceptives and abortions. These are a few of their unbelievable stories.

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08/13/2013

One of the best (and saddest) documentaries I've ever seen.

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07/26/2013

This powerful film documents the life of homeless children and will leave you reevaluating your perception of homelessness, drug use, and mental illness. At times, the movie is almost too intense to watch, as children are neglected, disregarded, and abused. However, when the camera finds these kids years later and more grown up, you empathize with their lost and broken mental state in a way I've never felt so acutely. It is easy to disregard our societal 'others' as insane or simply bad. Children Underground left me questioning this understanding and trying to place the homeless, insane, and criminal we all try to ignore in the light of their past experiences and our shared humanity.

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Synopsis

After the fall of communism in Romania, unwanted children in state orphanages escaped into the streets. These children are the subject of this documentary, which follows them into a subterranean world of hierarchy, hunger and drug use. The film focuses on five diverse children, including 12-year-old Mihai, who ran away from home due to his father's beatings, and Cristina, who passes for a boy. The filmmakers follow and record their daily lives, and the strained possibilities for reintegration.

Director: Edet Belzberg
Producer: Edet Belzberg
Distributor: Red Horse Inc.
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Romanian
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 16, 2001, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 18, 2016
Runtime: 1h 44m

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