A little commentary would have helped put the tragedy of the "Hillbrow Kids" into sharper perspective. As it stands, this disturbing documentary about young, black South African children who live on the streets of Hillbrow — an impoverished neighborhood in
Johannesburg — is the stuff of urban nightmares: powerful images that lack the benefit of context. German filmmakers Michael Hammon and Jacqueline Gorgen forgo conventional narration to follow a fictitious South African storyteller (Regina Ndlovu) as she wanders the very real byways of
Johannesburg, where the homeless children who inhabit Hillbrow's dismal shantytowns beg white South Africans for loose ...
Released:
1999
Rated:
NR
Length:
94 mins