The Youngest

Talented documentary filmmaker Ditsi Caralin has created another noteworthy film, which allows us to look into the bleak fate of children from the impoverished slums of the largest cities of the Third World. The main character of the film is eleven-year-old Bunso, who is serving time for minor theft in the metropolis of Manila, in the Philippines. Together with Diosel, who is a few months older, and thirteen-year-old Tony they are pressed up against hundreds of adult prisoners in overcrowded cells, many of whom are sentenced for rape, murder or dealing drugs. "Hey, it's raining, finally we can wash ourselves and our clothes," screams Tony in a burst of joy to his friends and together they run to the prison grounds towards the natural shower. If the rain is too heavy, however, it will leak into the prison cell and sleeping on a wet floor is not something that can be done very well. This documentary film provides an authentic picture of the everyday life in the poor conditions of an overcrowded prison as well as in the slums of Manila, where Bunso and his friends come from. The film draws attention to the hopeless situation of children who are locked away in prisons in the Philippines alongside adult criminals. Thanks to the three small heroes, who in the inhuman conditions gradually lose what is left of their childhood innocence, the film offers a number of very powerful moments.