25 August 2009 | B24

10 | Superb Documentary

Objectivity is hard to come by as one watches this film about children wandering away from homes that cannot sustain their basic needs. The knowledge that none of it is fictional or manipulated for any effect other than that of cinematic value heightens the viewer's deep involvement with the children themselves. Nothing seems artificial. The story is spontaneous, dictated by real events rather than "directed."



Of course there will be critics who lurk behind the camera's eye, as it were, finding fault with presumed motives and attaching political meanings to what they wish beforehand to find in the facts of this film's production. It takes a hard heart, however, to dismiss the simple premise that children ought not to be confronted with the perils of an adult world without the stabilizing presence and guidance of someone -- anyone -- able and willing to step in and help.



Think of it this way: If these children were from any place other than Mexico or Central America, would that premise be easier to accept? What if they were French, English, German, or American kids riding freight trains together with all manner of adult men of the most desperate kind?



It is not my intention to construct a straw man, but I find it reprehensible to hear as I so often do living on the Mexican border ignorant opinions chastising foreign people and governments for creating as it were the conditions that put children in such peril. The point should be to find ways of alleviating the suffering and preventing the deaths rather than creating draconian laws and policing borders. There are ways to do it without continuing to put up with the conditions we see in this film.



It is withal a beautifully constructed piece of cinema, a real must see.