User reviews

I had often wondered why, in the documentary portrayal's of street kids, 'Streetwise' was the one to garner all of the attention. Granted, it too, was a heartbreaking look at some kids affected by some pretty tumultuous times in this country thanks to many idiot policymakers euphemistic ideas about trickle-down economies. Sad as it is to say, I think the appeal comes from 80s nostalgia, and particularly nostalgia for the 80s American teenager. 'Children Underground,' which follows five children living in a subway station in Romania is much more disturbing and stark portrayal than Streetwise. As the prologue explains, many children found themselves on the street because, after the fall of Communism in Romania, the economy and state facilities in particular were effected and became ill-equipped to deal with hardships. Although, some of the kids portrayed in this documentary left home as a result of family problems.

Of the five children are Cristina Ionescu (16) is the oldest and I suppose the protectorate of the group of subway children. Although, she never seems to be too sincere in this role, beating the younger ones herself sometimes. Her background involves shifts between state custody in an orphanage and later an asylum because, as she said, she refused to let herself be beaten or taken advantage of and fought back.

Mihai Tudose was probably the most interesting among the street children; a 12 year-old boy who ran away from home because, as he explains, his father beat him. He always seemed to be in search of something better than the street life, but it just didn't seem that many were able to help him out. For example, we see him attending the school for street children, but when the social workers went home to get the papers that would enable his attendance, his parents wouldn't give them up. He was, just as the synopsis for the film says, a particularly intelligent boy. He just seemed to want to give up life in the subway in exchange even for the company of a pseudo-family (the homeless mother and the baby living in the abandoned building).

Macarena Rosu (14) was perhaps the saddest case because she basically spends the entire film huffing paint with other street kids. And, to the point that by the end, it seems that she has become either schizophrenic or manic depressant as a result, rationalizing her existence with the imaginary mother and father living outside of Bucharest and the twin sister by the same name attending private school, even though we know her to have arrived on the streets straight from an orphanage.

Ana and Marian Turturica are the youngest of the group. They never really get the full story as to why Ana (10) kept running away from home or why she eventually got her brother, Marian (8) to come with her. I would suspect, based on the stepfather's conversation, that it was because she at least did not get along with him. Or, that they felt incapable of living with their mother while she and the stepfather were unemployed and barely surviving themselves.

There doesn't seem to be much that could be done through the state to help these children. The hospital for street kids, for example, had no place to house the children. There were other facilities that were so limited on beds that the children first had to be deemed capable of rehabilitation, which basically meant that, since these children were hoooked on huffing paint, it wasn't likely that they would be admitted. And the older ones, it seemed, stood no chance of consideration at all.

I think in part that this movie was more stark than Streetwise is because so many of the children weren't yet even teenagers when the movie was filmed. And few of them seem to be living in any sort of euphoric sense of freedom. The situation is bad and they appear to well aware that for many of them, they're trapped in it. (Although, that is not to make light of the situations faced by the kids in Streetwise). It is, as other said, a hard to film to take in. There are scenes in the film where you wish the filmmakers, if no one else, would intervene. Especially in the moments where the youngest are beat up, where Mihai inflicts mutilation upon himself, of the kids who spend all day with their face in bag full of Aurolac paint, of the underfunded facilitaties that couldn't provide enough assistance, and also of the families who seem just as hopeless as the children. It is indeed an incredible piece of film-making.

I was curious to see this film having spent time in Bucharest several years ago. I never ventured onto the subway but did have occasion to go into the underground....which is necessary in many European cities since the streets are often quite wide and difficult to cross. This is particularly true in Bucharest where everything that the former dictator built-- the buildings, the roads, etc. all appear to be on steroids. Add to this the fact that so many of the nominated documentaries (and foreign films) are never properly distributed here --even in NYC..In any event, this is a very disturbing film; at times difficult to watch and as I recall the film makers received considerable criticism on their decision not to "interfere" with what was taking place --to allow the physical and mental abuse of the children by the older "leaders of the pack" and by the parents who also appear in the film as well as the lethal consumption of lead paint taken by the children to get them high and that clearly was contributing to their deteriation. It was stark, disturbing, very difficult to watch but incredible filmmaking , nonetheless.

Though it tells a sad story of a small group of runaway children living in squalor, the courage and survival instincts of some of these kids is inspiring. The filmmakers, to their credit, avoid preaching or commentary and there is (thankfully) no narration nor much incidental music to manipulate the viewer's emotional response, as so many lesser documentaries try to do. The DVD contains helpful follow-ups telling where the kids were at after the filming was done. Some of their stories are sad, others hopeful. The documentary doesn't create phony drama with "heroes" and "villains," it doesn't condemn or point fingers at parents or society but lets the audience make up its own mind, and hopefully some viewers will be inspired by this film to make a difference about troubled kids in their own communities.

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.

Nightmarish look at the lives of Romanian kids living in a large subway station in Bucharest, most of the kids are runaways from abusive homes or orphans, and most are addicted to huffing a toxic silver paint called aurolac.

The number of homeless children in Romania is very high due to a stupid decision made some years back to ban birth control. Many families in the current free market economy can't take care of the kids, who are shipped off to who-knows-what state-run childcare facility.

The film follows a number of the kids. The stories are heartbreaking. The filmmakers decision to stay passive during filming is troubling. Obviously, they want to capture reality, warts and all, for the viewer. I can respect that. But its nevertheless disturbing to watch the filmmakers passively "watch" a weeping ten-year old girl get viciously beaten by a street gang (in the next scene her nose is broken) or a 12 old boy mutilate himself with a piece of glass. The lack of action smacks of hypocrisy, especially in a film that presents itself as an indictment of apathy.

Trips to several kids' homes reveal worlds more menacing than life living on the streets.

Of all the kids Mikhil seems like he has the most promise. He seems upbeat, with a lot of spunk, and talks about getting an education. Cristina, the eldest and leader of the gang, lords over them in ways that seem militaristic. Macarena, perpetually weeping and high, hands and face smeared with silver paint, seems the most fargone. The bottomless look in her eyes is the most disturbing thing about the film. Ana is alternately responsible and uncontrollable. She dotes on her little brother maternally.

Heartbreaking movie. Children shouldn't have to live like this. Unfortunately, it is not just in Romania, all over the world this problem is widespread. I'm glad this film brings a bit of this to light

Focused on the lives of five Romanian children –Cristina, an orphan who led a band of children living in a subway station, and who grew up and survived passing as a boy; the charming boy Mihai, who loves poetry, wants education and who has run away from an abusive father; Macarena, perhaps the most dramatic of all, a drug addict who had not even realized she had a mother; and Ana and her brother Marian, who left behind their town and the extreme poverty at home, only to find worst conditions in the streets-, "Children Underground" shows how the Romanian government has yet to find a way to deal with these children, who after a month or so in the street are difficult to rehabilitate. The movie follows the kids everywhere, and is a silent witness of all the violence and abuse they have to deal with on a daily basis. The filmmaker Edet Belzberg opens the movie with a propaganda warning, telling us that the children of the Bucharest streets are the result of the anti-abortion and birth control laws of dictator Ceaucescu. It does not take much to deduce that Belzberg means that this terrible situation is a consequence of the Socialist regime, but –as in "Power Trip"- the film becomes more interesting when, after a while, one realizes that neither Capitalism has sound answers for the situation of deprived children all over the world. If Belzberg had told us instead that we all have certain responsability for every single injustice in the world, including what she is about to show, it would have been a more telling relationship between filmmaker and viewer. As it is, it is a good documentary nevertheless, that unintentionally becomes another statement of the need of humanity to find better ways to share world's wealth.

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.

Romanian cities teem with children living on the streets, since dictator Ceausescu - hoping to increase the work force - outlawed both birth control and abortion.

More than any other film I have seen, this captures the heartbreak and hopelessness of street kids and their lives. The 5 kids we follow scratch out an existence living together in a subway station.

It is initially hard to comprehend, as some of these kids theoretically have homes to return to. But when we see the nightmare reality of those homes, we start to understand that there are tiny children, some as young as 8, trapped between a rock and a hard place.

A true horror film, but, like documentaries on the holocaust, one that has an important reason to exist. To move people to action, and to make sure this kind of institutionalized neglect never happens again.

I caught this documentary at the Calgary International Film Festival. I had seen Bombay Eunuch a couple of days prior and found it sad, but a sadness tempered with the resiliency of some of subjects in that one. Children Underground had no silver lining. It is unrelentingly sad- scenes where children return home to their families of origin, ones in which the viewer is begging for some semblance of hope, devolve as we see the dysfunctions that drive 8-year-olds to run away. One mother's lament that she was better off under Ceaucescu should not be taken lightly. Children Underground is testament to the horrors experienced by those unlucky persons whose lives were destroyed in the "victory" over communism. Damn this world. I have never felt so powerless as after I saw these poor children. Damn this world.

Having just seen the DVD of Children Underground I must say strongly that this film should be seen by everyone in the postmodern first world. I saw these things for myself in Romania during December of 2000. The apathy on the streets of

Bucharest was deep and dark. My friends there kept shrugging their shoulders

saying; "What can you do?" A documentary on the thousands of dogs on the streets would be a riveting nightmare in itself. While I was there they held an election. The choice of presidential candidates was reduced to a hard-line old school communist and a new school fascist. The Communist won. People shrugged. The train stations and subway entrances were indeed hives for feral children. I'm deeply grateful to Edet Belzberg for having the courage to descend into this manmade hell to bring these images back. It is my hope that the Romanians themselves find some of that same courage. I was moved that even at this stage of hell several of the kids held on to at least some idea of God. That could be seen by the cynically ironic of the West as the superstition of the hopeless, but perhaps it is also evidence that these children are not hopeless. To blame these problems on the lack of abortions or contraceptives is naïve and simplistic. Listen to the voices of the parents in this film. It is the apathy, the failure of courage and the utter selfishness reinforced by too many years of soul crushing communist dictatorship. We, ourselves, have no reason to gloat. Apart from having a surfeit of material possessions would we fare any better if the props were kicked from beneath us? Perhaps… perhaps not. This film, along with Lilja 4-Ever, is a warning sign of something growing in this world. Robert L. Kaplan termed it The Coming Anarchy. It will spread. Meanwhile how will you respond to these things? With compassion or with apathy?

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.

Just an excellent documentary. I just happened to catch it on one of the movie channels and for some reason I couldn't turn away from it. The more you get to know the children the more hopeless you feel for their situation. One child in particular caught my eye. Mihai was such a resilent child and seemed so bright, it could only make you wonder what would be if circumstances were different. I applaud the filmakers for not disturbing or interupting the natural order or progression of these people's lives. The only way to make people understand and fully realize the awfulness of the situation is to sit back and watch and not be able to do anything. There are so many disturbing scenes in the film but what really got me was the scene in the park where the young boy cuts himself because of a fight he gets into with the girl. I could barely bring myself to watch it. These children are so mature for their age it belies how young they really are. I am not usually an emotional person when it comes to these documentaries but the sheer helplessness and sadness of the situations had me in tears. Tears of sadness and tears of frustration. An interesting note was the strong base that religion holds in that country and over these children. Many times they reference God and explain their plight as His will and following His path. In this country(USA) it seems God is the first person we blame for our troubles. Overall a emotionally exhausting yet well worth seeing film.

Well, I had just come back from work at about 2am in the morning. I turn on my TV and switch through the channels, and on SBS I find this amazing documentary about the Romanian 'underground children'.

This documentary really gave an honest (raw) view of the street kids life, which I found to be both fascinating and disturbing.. What I found interesting was the fact that a lot of them (in my view) 'enjoyed' or customised to the street life and really didn't want to be helped. I personally could see their justification for this at the beginning of the documentary as they all had friends, a place to sleep and a type of community. Though near the end, when it showed them a year or so later it made me quite sad to think that a lot of them are really on their own and loosing their grip on reality due to sniffing paint everyday, especially 'Macarena'. I really dread to think where this girl is now, considering that she is probably around the age of 16 or 17.

Anyhow, whether you care about the homeless or not this documentary really is interesting. Highly recommended.

This documentary films a group of homeless children who congregate in and around Piața Victoriei subway station. Former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu outlawed contraception and abortion. Children from orphanages and unwanted runaways gather in Bucharest numbering around 20,000. The kids beg for money, fight and struggle to survive while sniffing paint to keep the pain away. In the end, many of these early teens are reunited with their families.

The first half of this documentary is shocking to say the least. It's so unreal that I wonder at times whether this is a fake doc like 'Kids'. The most shocking thing is that those kids are so young. It's a modern-day Dickensian world. The movie does leave some question marks about the future of these kids and it would be awesome to reconnect with these kids in a future date.

If you like documentaries,if you like good movies this movie should be on your list...if you think well let's think a little bit about our world and after the movie well let's play pool it won't work!!!This documentary in all its brutality in all its incomplete and not perfect camera ,storytelling(there is no)...in all its simplicity it gives you a punch in your stomach...because as i am one of you who will read it right now....we do care for other people,,,but we have out distance and we can easily drink our coke while watching....well these children live hell,live in poverty and that is no movie ...this is their life!Well not to sound to snobbiest watch this movie but please do something...if not there in your hometown love and mercy p.s.:snobs like me still didn't find time to spend any money

I grew up in Bucharest in the 90s while my mother worked at a subway kiosk in the city center, very close to where this was filmed. All the faces in this documentary look familiar to me. I am probably about the same age as those kids.

I watched the whole documentary in tears remembering how I was thought by my parents to avoid this kids and look down on them because they are homeless, they take drugs, steal and beg. My mother would be disgusted every time one of them would come to buy cigarettes from the kiosk she worked at, because she had to take money from their dirty hands. They were seen as non human by everyone, they were just kids.

After more than 20 years since this documentary I am sad to realize that not much has changed in most Romanians who lived through those times, even though economically the country is doing much better.

It's also quite interesting how this documentary is very obscure în Romania.

Whenever people ask me for some recommendations, I always bring this one up. I’ve seen many depressing films in my life, but this has to be one of the worst. It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to be one of those children living as they do. The paint sniffing, the lack of food and the fighting at their age is just sad. I found myself forgetting the ages of these children, but after finishing the film the pictures of some of the children have yet to leave my head months later. There are films like KIDS or Pixote that do their best in trying to portray a day in the life of a youth in their environment. This film is a step inside their lives, as even upon a child being gang beat, the camera did not interfere. The image of the child being beaten by a group of other children is vivid in my head today, and should be. This film was meant to over the eyes of people, and I guarantee it will to anyone who gives it a chance too.

This movie was both enlightening and depressing at the same time. I had no idea the late Romanian dictator implemented such a disastrous policy that has led to widespread suffering by his nation's children. It's also funny that some of the kids professed a belief in God despite their wretched conditions. I sincerely hope they can rise above mere belief and religion and pull themselves out of their situations.