After churning out such big-studio claptrap as MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (1999) and ANGEL EYES (2001), Mexican-born director Luis Mandoki tries his hand at a subject far more serious: the forced conscription of peasant children into the army during El Salvador's brutal civil war. El Salvador, 1980: Left alone to raise a family while her husband seeks a better life for himself in the U.S., hardworking Kella (Leonor Varela) and her three children — 11-year-old Chava (Carlos Padilla), his little brother, Ricardito (Alejandro Felipe), and their sister, Rosita — are left to fend for themselves in a tiny village that's become a blood-spattered battlefield. Their town is the last...
Released:
2005
Rated:
R
Length:
120 mins