Guerra dos Meninos

There's a silent war going on in Brazil and the authorities are turning a blind eye. It is a minefield with unequal forces contending with each other. This battle knows neither territory nor weapons. It is a battle without reasons, arguments and conquests. In fact, the fighters rarely know who the enemy is. This war is called the children's war. In the past five years 1,822 children have been killed. They are children without faces, deserted children whom no one wants to find, the remains of broken families. The street is the only way out for those who have nowhere to go. Seven million children have taken to the street which is their home, rummaging through street refuse, begging for money, selling little things and committing small thefts. In an attempt to understand the causes and results of this children's war, the camera takes us through the slums, to the city limits and the downtown boulevards in order to show us the enormous amount of social refuse, that, in the words of Gilberto Dimenstein, "has been swept under the country's carpet, showing most prominently the systematic extermination of the children." Who are these kids? Why are they being killed? Who is killing them?