"The Children of Leningradsky" is a Polish 2005 documentary, so this one had its 10th anniversary last year. The language in here is Russian though, but that's kinda obvious given the topic. It is about homeless children living on the streets of Russia. The directors were Andrzej Celinski and Hanna Polak and for both of them, it was their biggest career success so far as this 35-minute documentary was nominated for an Academy Award a decade ago where it ironically lost to another documentary about children, American children actually. But back to this one here. It is really one sad little film. We find out why the children lost their homes, which frequently had to do with the parents not being capable of taking care of them anymore, frequently because of their own problems such as alcohol addiction. However, some of the children also say they want to be free and not live like in a prison and maybe made their own decision in living where they live now. But that's just as bad. One of the strong aspects of this documentary is the realism. Not only is all this taken from real life, but the children are also not depicted as little angels. They play pranks on homeless people, get on each other's nerves and sometimes even fight pretty violently. But that's what kids do. The ones who really hurt them are the grown-ups though. One example is in the middle of a film when we see a boy whose face is full of glue. A shocking scene, almost physically painful to watch. He is in terrible pain after a police officer got it all over the boy's face. Of course, this also shows the helplessness of the grown-ups in dealing with the situation as the children's drug abuse of glue is a major problem, what we experience ourselves in a heartbreaking turn of events at the very end of the film. It made me really sad. These 35 minutes are a look into the dark abyss of human civilization. I have no idea how things have changed in the decade since this film came out. I hope the kids are better now and that this problem could have been solved at least to some extent. I have little hope though. Thanks to the filmmakers for bringing these issues to our attention. A criminally underseen documentary and I really want you to check it out.
Plot summary
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.
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Really tragic all along
An incredible movie
Well I have just finished watching this movie and cant hold my tears. It has shown the plight of the the most vulnerable victims of the post soviet union. These are the children forgotten by their families and the world. They are struggling to survive in the harsh realities of life. They are looked upon everyday but forgotten in the next moment. The most tragic part of the movie was when the beautiful little girl dies. I must strongly recommend this movie to watch. It is hard to watch but we cannot shy away from the realities. The best we can do is to donate as much as we can to the Russian homeless children, the links are in the end of the movie and in website. Lets make a difference in someones life.
Blood-chilling, terrifying...
This is a warning: Approach this documentary with great care. Depicting the daily miseries of orphans of Moscow who lead lives that we could not imagine even in our worst nightmares, it is horror in its purest state, so heart-wrenching that you will have to make an effort to be able to watch it from start to finish without having to look away. Images that will probably haunt you for a long time, if not forever. God, I can feel my eyes welling up just remembering them... It is unbelievable that these horrors, which seem to be a tale from centuries ago, are allowed to take place every day, not just in this wretched 21st century world, but so close to us rich westerners, in a European city which has never been considered to be in "the third world".
Near the end, one of the characters says something like "God loves everybody, not just the Russians; he even loves the Chechens; but, most of all, he loves the children". It sounds to me like the best advice Mr. Putin could ever receive. And these words of wisdom don't come from a cultivated analyst, they come from an abandoned child who dwells in the streets of the same city he lives in...