The Forgotten
Children Underground
Unrated
2001, Docurama
Documentary director Edet Belzberg makes her feature filmmaking debut with Children Underground, a look at five orphaned children living in a subway station in Bucharest, Romania, and the results are emotionally powerful.
Belzberg and cinematographer Wolfgang Held tell the children's stories in classic cinema verité style, meaning they never interact personally with their subjects, and the film is better for it. Editor Jonathan Oppenheim keeps the story moving among the five children. Every scene matters, making me think that Oppenheim whittled away a lot of footage before creating Children Underground's final, 104-minute cut. Held's handheld camerawork is steady, but appropriately intimate. The pictures in Children Underground tell a heartbreaking story, one that grips your attention to the very end.
Through Children Underground, Belzberg takes us to the stark Piata Victoriei station and shows us these forgotten kids in an up-close-and-personal manner. You feel the dampness of the station's tile corridors and the cold concrete pavement where they set up their cardboard beds. Accounts of homeless children are sadly frequent these days, but Belzberg makes the lives of the Piata Victoriei children unforgettable. More importantly, Belzberg also shows each child as a distinct personality, complete with his or her own story.
One of the oldest, Macarena, has given up seeking a better life. Instead, she finds solace in the bottles of Aurolac she regularly inhales to get high. Ten-year-old Ana plays caregiver to her younger brother, Marian, and the added responsibility is clearly taking its toll on her. Ana has a worn and worldly face with deep-set eyes. It's the face of someone who has lived a hard life, not the face a 10-year-old girl should have. Like others in the Piata Victoriei group, Ana huffs on Aurolac to escape the world around her. She slowly spins, flashing the dazed expression of someone who has lost touch with reality.
Cristina uses her boyish looks to cement her position as the group's undisputed ringleader. In fact, if you didn't know better, you'd think Cristina was a boy. Mihai is the one member of the Piata Victoriei clan that has not lost hope for a normal life. When he has a washed face and clean clothes, he resembles a normal kid. These moments in Children Underground make the hardest impact. You realize that the Piata Victoriei children chose their lives because they believed they had no other choice.
Belzberg shows the few Bucharest social agencies that help the Piata Victoriei children. The Open House is a school for street children. A daytime clinic, one of only two in the city, offers a place where homeless children can wash their clothes, get a hot meal and some medical care. An English nun attempts to place Ana and Marian in a shelter, only to be refused by social workers who insist that Ana and Marian are addicted to life on the streets.
Late in the film, a social worker takes Ana and Marian back to the rural community outside Bucharest where their mother and stepfather live. While Ana sits and listens, her stepfather talks about the importance of Ana remaining a virgin. It's a sinister scene that explains why Ana and her brother return to Piata Victoriei.
Mihai also goes back to his hometown to get his identity papers from his family. A social worker accompanies him to plead his case, but his parents refuse. In a later interview, his father explains that he never beat Mihai, although he did chain him to a radiator. The father's interview captures all the poverty and abuse in the lives of the Piata Victoriei children. One thing becomes clear: They're at Piata Victoriei because they're convinced it's the safest place to be.
A DVD bonus gives updates on the lives of the Piata Victoriei, but Belzberg understands there are few happy endings when telling a story about a community of homeless children. Children Underground is heartbreaking to watch, but it's also heartfelt. Belzberg leaves us with a sliver of hope for the Piata Victoriei children and others like them. We can't ask for anything more.
Children Underground grade: A
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