Los Olvidados

aka: The Young and the Damned, aka The Forgotten Ones
Mexico 1950, 85 minutes
Dir. Luis Bunuel
In Spanish with English subtitles
Rating: [M]
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama / Youth

Topics: Peasantry.

Aroview: Ground-breaking masterwork from dir. Luis Bunuel's Meixcan period, set among slum children in Mexico City, whose harsh circumstances and neglectful parents breed youthful callousness and tragic consequences.

Bunuel leavens his pessimism with wry observations and a fine sense of irony, along with some of the most astonishing dream sequences ever put on film. Controversial of course, but never gratuitous, this deservedly carried off the director's prize at Cannes back in '51.

NZ International Film Festival 2006