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Reviews
Children of God (2008)
The poster copy says it all
I really liked the cinéma vérité style of this documentary and the interweaving of the stories to show the location's unique circle of life. Even though the subject matter is very sad and despite the perpetual struggle of the subjects, the director shows many moments of happiness, friendship and beauty. Listening to the main subject Alesh, who narrates throughout, reminds me of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince if he were to live beside Kathmandu's Bagmati river. His narration is moving and poetic for a child of 12, and in my opinion was the best attribute of the documentary. The director doesn't start or end the film with statistics or societal criticism, making the reality of the subject matter much more human and universal. I was able to visit the Pashupatinath Temple recently and it is much like in the movie except with thousands more tourists witnessing these children's poverty. The only thing I wished from the documentary is that a charity or other means of donating had been listed in the credits.
SPOILER: For updates on the welfare of Alesh and some of the other kids in Children of God, there are the YouTube videos The Kids of Pashupatinath/A la Par and Street Children in Nepal/NMFChannel. In Street Children in Nepal, Alesh is 16 and can be seen interviewed at 2:20 and again at 3:25. In The Kids of Pashupatinath, Alesh (17) is seen throughout, but is interviewed in English at 13:30. For some reason they incorrectly give him the name Eles Taman, but that is him. David can be seen at 12:30 and David's friend from the Gaushala Ring Road area, Rabin, is interviewed with Alesh. According to someone who is friends with Alesh and David, their mother has passed away since the documentary and the little sister Puja is in school.