This film sometimes seems like a modern Lord of the Flies, taking place not on some remote island but in the subways under Bucharest. It stands as a useful counterpart to the very popular Brazilian film, City of God--for as exhilarating and thrilling as City of God may be, its funky aesthetics tend to elide the grey and miserable existence of children on the street. The filmmakers assert at the beginning of the film that Ceaucescu's political dictates were the root cause of how these children came to be on the street. Although they are no doubt correct that Ceaucescu's regime was largely responsible, the film itself makes clear that there were other social, familial and personal reasons for the children to flee their homes.

Many of the children escaped abuse and terrible family violence. In one extended sequence, a pair of children return home and are briefly reunited with their mother and stepfather; the shocking ambivalence of the family is all too obvious. The documentary itself makes it impossible to ascribe the suffering to one despotic government. The film also plainly documents the continued failure of adults to protect these children (despite valiant efforts from some very committed and caring adults), as well as the refusal of many of these children to accept help.

This is a film of witnessing, and one is left asking the questions that witnessing demands: is witnessing enough? What interventions are possible for these children, or others like them? If nothing can come of it, then is witnessing not simply a moral form of voyeurism?