I figli della guerra

I have just seen the movie here in El Salvador, where I am on vacation. My parents are both Salvadoran, and I have visited here many times, as well as resided here for several years. I remember visiting during war time, seeing soldiers with their guns, though i was a very young child unaware of the true situation.

This movie brought to light the horrible scenes and awful truths of the atrocities that occurred during the war, and that still happen in warfare today. Looking through the eyes of an eleven-year-old child in fear of recruitment, you are brought straight into the war and his life. Everyone in the audience had heard good things about the movie, and in turn agreed; we applauded when the movie was over. There is humor, romance, and of course, tragedy. Some parts were almost unbearable to watch, but then the movie is portraying a reality that we should not and cannot ignore.

I strongly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone, and I hope they will soon bring it to the U.S. and abroad.

I just read all of your comments guys..it doesn't matter which side mistreated kids more..the fact is kids were recruited to fight...i come from Lebanon, a country that knew 15 years of civil war..and yes in my country too, kids fought side to side with militias..."Voces Innocentes" is for me a very sad movie..it tickles our state of mind in the sense that it reminds us that life isn't as pleasant anywhere else on earth..here El Salvador is shown torn by civil war, but elsewhere daily wars are still going on (Darfour in Ethiopia, Sida in Africa, poverty in India...) I received the movie from Mexico..It is a shame it was only shown here in Canada in Toronto's Film Festival..Movies like "Voces Innocentes" should be made known to the public...Instead of bombarding people with loads of commercial pointless movies, let them think for a change...

I watched it on the release week in El Salvador on December 26th 2004. It was the first country in which the movie was shown commercially. What can I say? ALMOST NO WORDS, but WONDERFUL.

I am thirty years old now and by that time I was a kid just like CHAVA. I personally had to flee from El Salvador's Army forced recruitment a couple of times, so the movie was a flashback for me. I cried remembering those nights when bullets were flying over my house.

WAR is a crime no matter what the objective is and specially if innocence is stolen from children.

The movie travels through every place in which children are forced to take a weapon in their innocent hands: Africa, Middle-East, Asia, Colombia, etc; or to every place in which children suffer the consequences of war.

For those who has not lived a war by themselves and enjoy watching the news about IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, ISRAEL, COLOMBIA it is time to think about what you can do in order to stop this human massacre in the name of "freedom" .

I saw this film in El Salvador, while I was on vacation visiting relatives. It is a very good film. Somehow, I'd hoped that it would be this good. I have seen previous films about El Salvador, from "Salvador" by Oliver Stone to "Romero", but none of those films come close to portraying how this civil war affected thousands of civilians. The film depicts the story of Chava, an 11 year-old boy, whose main concern is that as soon as he turns 12 he will be recruited by the Military to fight the Guerillas. Through his eyes, we see the atrocities that are brought upon his family,friends and his own life. Though it is set in El Salvador, this could be a story from anywhere around the world, where a Civil War breaks out and the effects on its own people.

The characters are well written; the plot well told and the actors, especially, the kid playing Chava are very good. It is void of any clichés as many films when dealing with delicate subjects such as a civil war. You can see that these are real people going through a great ordeal, unlike "Salvador" or even "Romero" whose characters and plots were obviously made up based on facts read on news papers. I highly recommend this film to everyone who wants to see the reality of war and its consequences on the lives of innocent people.

I'm from El Salvador and went to see the movie yesterday with my wife. First, it's unbelievable that the government allowed this film to be presented in the country. Usually they forbid the showings of any movie that touches the topic of the war because they want to erase the memories of war to present the image of a new country, but without learning from the mistakes of our past.

Second, I've seen a couple of movies about El Salvador (Oliver Stone's Salvador and Romero) and I gotta say that this movie is the most accurate depiction of the environment of wartime in El Salvador. The forceful recruitment depicted in the movie was an everyday ordeal for most families of humble status, with the army stopping the bus and taking all young men to the barracks.