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Children of Leningradsky

Offtopic. Nicht unbedingt von der Kategorie “feel-good film” aber ist uns einen Hinweis wert weil der Streifen wirklich gut recherchiert und produziert ist. Die Polen An­drzej Ce­lin­ski und Hanna Polak haben diese 35­mi­nu­e­ti­ge Do­ku­men­ta­ti­on gedreht um auf die zahlreichen 8 bis 14jährigen Kin­der in und um die Mos­kau­er U-​Bahn-​Sta­ti­on Le­nin­gradsky hinzuweisen, denn dort unten ist nicht alles Gold was glänzt.

Since the fall of the Iron Cur­tain an esti­ma­ted four mil­li­on child­ren have found them­sel­ves li­ving on the streets in the for­mer coun­tri­es of the So­viet Union. In the streets of Moscow alone there are over 30,000 sur­vi­ving in this man­ner at the pre­sent time. The ma­kers of the do­cu­men­ta­ry film con­cen­tra­ted on a com­mu­ni­ty of home­l­ess child­ren li­ving hand to mouth in the Moscow train sta­ti­on Le­nin­gradsky. Eight-​ye­ar-​old Sasha, ele­ven-​ye­ar-​old Kris­ti­na, thir­teen-​ye­ar-​old Misha and ten-​ye­ar-​old An­d­rej all dream of li­ving in a com­mu­nal home. They spend win­ter nights try­ing to stay warm by huddling to­ge­ther on hot water pipes and most of their days are spent begging. An­d­rej has found him­s­elf here be­cau­se of di­sagree­ments with his fa­mi­ly. Kris­ti­na was dri­ven into this way of life by the hat­red of her step­mo­ther and twel­ve-​ye­ar-​old Roma by the re­gu­lar bea­tings he re­cei­ved from his con­stant­ly drunk fa­ther. „When it is worst, we try to make money for food by pro­sti­tu­ti­on,“ ad­mits thir­teen-​ye­ar-​old Artur. The pair of Polish filmma­kers in this raw and very ef­fec­tive do­cu­men­ta­ry even suc­cee­ded in filming an in­ci­dent where the po­li­ce pa­trol beat one of the street child­ren and smear an en­t­i­re tube of glue into his hair and onto his face. It is pre­cise­ly this snif­fing of the glue fumes that gives these child­ren the pos­si­bi­li­ty to at least for a litt­le while es­cape the unf­or­gi­ving world around them. It is a life of flee­ting pos­si­bi­li­ties and dan­ger.

http://www.childrenofleningradsky.com/
(via)