Showing @ CCA, Glasgow, Sun 12 Oct only @ 14.45
Hannah Polak / Russia / 2013 / 8 mins
When parents around the world tell their offspring they are ‘living in a dump’ it’s usually the precursor to the instruction ‘go and tidy your room’. For the children depicted in Hannah Polak’s gloomy and heart-rending documentary, the figure of speech is all too real. At a dump on the outskirts of Moscow, a group of children live in a ramshackle collection of huts (think the slums of Delhi) living off what they can scavenge.
It doesn’t take much for this tender short to pull you in to the wide-eyed innocence of its protagonists. Dirty faces and grubby hands covered in threadbare clothing – akin to the conditions of Oliver Twist – shroud a unanimous desire for something better. While their homemade, lopsided accommodation may provide some respite from the bitter Russian winters, they look barely strong enough to withstand the more forceful icy gales – the kids are often huddled under blankets. Realising these conditions are far from ideal, one wonders about safety: multiple dripping candles create anxiety about fire, questions of food hygiene are never answered and how do they protect themselves?
When the shock of the superficial grubbiness fades, their humanity begins to shine through: they want a home, a job, a family, a lover, love. It might be tempting to dismiss these kids as urchins, tramps or just “different” but hearing their aspirations – found in children the world over – emphasises the similarities we all share as humans.
Showing as part of the Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2014