Too much of everything

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent but underrated film

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Official release I got today from a normal movie rental agent has HARDCODED subs and I speak Spanish. It's jarring to try and watch a movie and have the dialogue in *GIANT* letters in English. The fact that English and Spanish word ordering and grammar are light years apart doesn't help that concept one bit. Why do a Spanish movie that is hard to enjoy in the Spanish language?Nice cinematography, for the most part, but WHY on the jarring subs?Interesting story, pretty camera work for the most part.Munged up by not giving me an option to turn off subs.Good story, questionable execution. I'm going to see if I can get a Spanish language version to watch.

Yes, this documentary is about poor, fatherless children who must work in the hazardous mines to support their families. I won't go into a lot of detail about the specifics of the film--you can find that in other user comments. There are multitudes of documentaries detailing the sad stories the less fortunate members of the world are forced to live every day. So what? What makes this movie different? Two things: 1) the incredible maturity and strength of character of Basilio Vargas (the 14 year old miner the documentary is centered around) and 2) the expert way the filmmakers let the story tell itself instead of force-feeding the viewer pity and guilt.I am not a filmmaker, but I think it took a great deal of wisdom for them to realize that this young man could relate the story on his own better than any amount of narration or scripted propaganda. Basilio is heroic, mature, a dreamer with goals and aspirations, a fatherless child, a father to his siblings, a breadwinner for the family, and he never complains about any of it.Watching this film makes you want to comfort Basilio and then get down on your knees and ask God for forgiveness for being such an ungrateful and spoiled Westerner. Somehow though, you come away from it wishing you could show it to everyone you know, and wishing you could tell Basilio how much you admire him.

There are a number of excellent films about children available. This is a new one, and certainly merits attentions. It is a very moving study of the lives of children who every day face a very harsh reality. These children work in the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia, famed for the terrible acts of depredations perpetrated on the Native Americans by the Spanish colonial powers. This is both a wrenching study of kids willingness to do what must be done to survive as well as a fantastic statement about their strength and hope. Thanks to the film and the notoriety that went with it and the support of child advocacy groups, the story has a happy ending. If you saw and were impressed by such films as Death in Gaza or Promises, which also depict children suffering at the hands of adults in today's world, you will be equally moved by this one.

This movie tells of families who have no choice but to send their kids to work for the family because the father is either dead, or who knows what. In this case, we meet two kids, Basilio and Bernandino, aged 14 and 12, respectably, who, because of their father's death, now have to work in the mines to support the family, namely their mother and their infant sister. So off to the mines they go, making of course, next to nothing. SOMEHOW, the kids make enough money to send Basilio to school, who amazingly is teased because he works in the mines, Soon, another mining position opens up, but Basilio has to go farther away..OK, we've seen this type of documentary before, (EG kids forced to work horrendous jobs!) but this doc gets points for making the mine one interesting character. The mine, Bolivians believe is controlled by Satan himself, and they must put up an effigy and offer it gifts in order not to die in the mines, which would really suck lol.