Polin escapes from a juvenile corrections center and makes his way to his home in a Buenos Aires slum, only to be caught again by the police.
In his day of freedom, he steals some cash from a sleeping bus-rider; goes skinny-dipping with the local children; observes some almost "lord of the flies" cruelty among his peers; watches as his home slum deals with an accidental death;smokes innumerable cigarettes; peeks in on a local whore servicing the men of the slum; and ends up "liberating" an old cart horse before being re-apprehended.
While I've never been a fan of neorealism in film, I've been aware of this film since the early 1980's. At that time it was distributed by Award Films, an outfit that bravely distributed a number of films featuring homosexual themes and child nudity.
This film paints a bleak picture of life among poor young boys growing up in the "mean streets" of 1960's Argentina.
I finally mustered the stamina to sit through it from the beginning to end, only 79 minutes. In trying to describe the film, I find myself searching for synonyms for bleak. While the film is not exactly barren, all of the antonyms I encounter; appealing, bright, comfortable, pleasant, all describe what is lacking in this film. I'm convinced that this film owes what success it has had in some small part to the truth it shows, but in large part to the youthful appeal of its young subjects and the nudity which is liberally included.
I wonder if this film were re-released in this more jaded age, if it might not simply be subtitled, "Naked Boys Swimming" and sell as well.