Venezuela, le pays des enfants perdus

Titre original : Venezuela: Country of Lost Children
Documentaire
    Réalisé par Juan Camilo Cruz, Marc Wiese • Écrit par Juan Camilo Cruz, Marc Wiese
    Allemagne • 2023 • 95 minutes • Couleur
  • N° ISAN :
    non renseigné
Résumé

La corruption gangrène le Venezuela depuis des années. À la frontière avec la Colombie, le film suit le combat de deux familles qui se débattent pour procurer nourriture, éducation et amour à leurs enfants. Et tenter de maintenir une solidarité dans le quartier où le tissu social est mis à mal par les gangs et les armes.

Corruption and mismanagement has turned Venezuela into a failed state. Over six million people have fled in recent years. Around one million children were left behind by their parents. This film follows two single mothers and their children over several months as they do what it takes to survive.
In the barrio Santa Rosa de Agua, health care has collapsed and children are dying from hunger. Carolina has set up a foundation to help feed them. But the barrio is so violent, she’s had to send her own daughter, Victoria, to a children’s home. The home is an oasis in the midst of violence and deprivation but many of the children, who haven’t seen their parents for years, are traumatised. They struggle with feelings of rejection.
Most people in the barrio survive by violence, prostitution, begging. "I’ve had to do lots of things for my kids", confides Kiara. "Selling drugs, stealing, prostituting myself. Everything a woman can do for her children". Her eldest son, Yorbenis, 14, has already joined a gang and is on the verge of his first kill.
Desperate, Kiara decides to leave the country for Colombia. She takes her small children with her while Yorbenis’ remains behind. Now she’s terri!ed that he will be murdered in her absence. She knows he is being hunted by rival gangs, as well as the police…

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