Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Pepper Anne I had often wondered why, in the documentary portrayal's of street kids, 'Streetwise' was the one to garner all of the attention. Granted, it too, was a heartbreaking look at some kids affected by some pretty tumultuous times in this country thanks to many idiot policymakers euphemistic ideas about trickle-down economies. Sad as it is to say, I think the appeal comes from 80s nostalgia, and particularly nostalgia for the 80s American teenager. 'Children Underground,' which follows five children living in a subway station in Romania is much more disturbing and stark portrayal than Streetwise. As the prologue explains, many children found themselves on the street because, after the fall of Communism in Romania, the economy and state facilities in particular were effected and became ill-equipped to deal with hardships. Although, some of the kids portrayed in this documentary left home as a result of family problems.Of the five children are Cristina Ionescu (16) is the oldest and I suppose the protectorate of the group of subway children. Although, she never seems to be too sincere in this role, beating the younger ones herself sometimes. Her background involves shifts between state custody in an orphanage and later an asylum because, as she said, she refused to let herself be beaten or taken advantage of and fought back.Mihai Tudose was probably the most interesting among the street children; a 12 year-old boy who ran away from home because, as he explains, his father beat him. He always seemed to be in search of something better than the street life, but it just didn't seem that many were able to help him out. For example, we see him attending the school for street children, but when the social workers went home to get the papers that would enable his attendance, his parents wouldn't give them up. He was, just as the synopsis for the film says, a particularly intelligent boy. He just seemed to want to give up life in the subway in exchange even for the company of a pseudo-family (the homeless mother and the baby living in the abandoned building).Macarena Rosu (14) was perhaps the saddest case because she basically spends the entire film huffing paint with other street kids. And, to the point that by the end, it seems that she has become either schizophrenic or manic depressant as a result, rationalizing her existence with the imaginary mother and father living outside of Bucharest and the twin sister by the same name attending private school, even though we know her to have arrived on the streets straight from an orphanage.Ana and Marian Turturica are the youngest of the group. They never really get the full story as to why Ana (10) kept running away from home or why she eventually got her brother, Marian (8) to come with her. I would suspect, based on the stepfather's conversation, that it was because she at least did not get along with him. Or, that they felt incapable of living with their mother while she and the stepfather were unemployed and barely surviving themselves.There doesn't seem to be much that could be done through the state to help these children. The hospital for street kids, for example, had no place to house the children. There were other facilities that were so limited on beds that the children first had to be deemed capable of rehabilitation, which basically meant that, since these children were hoooked on huffing paint, it wasn't likely that they would be admitted. And the older ones, it seemed, stood no chance of consideration at all.I think in part that this movie was more stark than Streetwise is because so many of the children weren't yet even teenagers when the movie was filmed. And few of them seem to be living in any sort of euphoric sense of freedom. The situation is bad and they appear to well aware that for many of them, they're trapped in it. (Although, that is not to make light of the situations faced by the kids in Streetwise). It is, as other said, a hard to film to take in. There are scenes in the film where you wish the filmmakers, if no one else, would intervene. Especially in the moments where the youngest are beat up, where Mihai inflicts mutilation upon himself, of the kids who spend all day with their face in bag full of Aurolac paint, of the underfunded facilitaties that couldn't provide enough assistance, and also of the families who seem just as hopeless as the children. It is indeed an incredible piece of film-making.

Petros000 Though it tells a sad story of a small group of runaway children living in squalor, the courage and survival instincts of some of these kids is inspiring. The filmmakers, to their credit, avoid preaching or commentary and there is (thankfully) no narration nor much incidental music to manipulate the viewer's emotional response, as so many lesser documentaries try to do. The DVD contains helpful follow-ups telling where the kids were at after the filming was done. Some of their stories are sad, others hopeful. The documentary doesn't create phony drama with "heroes" and "villains," it doesn't condemn or point fingers at parents or society but lets the audience make up its own mind, and hopefully some viewers will be inspired by this film to make a difference about troubled kids in their own communities.

Edgar Soberon Torchia Focused on the lives of five Romanian children –Cristina, an orphan who led a band of children living in a subway station, and who grew up and survived passing as a boy; the charming boy Mihai, who loves poetry, wants education and who has run away from an abusive father; Macarena, perhaps the most dramatic of all, a drug addict who had not even realized she had a mother; and Ana and her brother Marian, who left behind their town and the extreme poverty at home, only to find worst conditions in the streets-, "Children Underground" shows how the Romanian government has yet to find a way to deal with these children, who after a month or so in the street are difficult to rehabilitate. The movie follows the kids everywhere, and is a silent witness of all the violence and abuse they have to deal with on a daily basis. The filmmaker Edet Belzberg opens the movie with a propaganda warning, telling us that the children of the Bucharest streets are the result of the anti-abortion and birth control laws of dictator Ceaucescu. It does not take much to deduce that Belzberg means that this terrible situation is a consequence of the Socialist regime, but –as in "Power Trip"- the film becomes more interesting when, after a while, one realizes that neither Capitalism has sound answers for the situation of deprived children all over the world. If Belzberg had told us instead that we all have certain responsability for every single injustice in the world, including what she is about to show, it would have been a more telling relationship between filmmaker and viewer. As it is, it is a good documentary nevertheless, that unintentionally becomes another statement of the need of humanity to find better ways to share world's wealth.

mich2woodie Just an excellent documentary. I just happened to catch it on one of the movie channels and for some reason I couldn't turn away from it. The more you get to know the children the more hopeless you feel for their situation. One child in particular caught my eye. Mihai was such a resilent child and seemed so bright, it could only make you wonder what would be if circumstances were different. I applaud the filmakers for not disturbing or interupting the natural order or progression of these people's lives. The only way to make people understand and fully realize the awfulness of the situation is to sit back and watch and not be able to do anything. There are so many disturbing scenes in the film but what really got me was the scene in the park where the young boy cuts himself because of a fight he gets into with the girl. I could barely bring myself to watch it. These children are so mature for their age it belies how young they really are. I am not usually an emotional person when it comes to these documentaries but the sheer helplessness and sadness of the situations had me in tears. Tears of sadness and tears of frustration. An interesting note was the strong base that religion holds in that country and over these children. Many times they reference God and explain their plight as His will and following His path. In this country(USA) it seems God is the first person we blame for our troubles. Overall a emotionally exhausting yet well worth seeing film.