Pellet (2000)

Strong film about domestic violence, abuse, fear and friendship. A must-see film for everyone. The actors are really good, the atmosphere changes from cold and ghostly to warm, sweet and humane and the other way round, so you somehow feel like getting a "Scottish shower" of feelings. Even if that film left me with a rather bitter taste on my lips, I would recommend it to everyone. Some may even cry... so be prepared, because it is quite strong. Also, I wouldn't recommend to watch this film with very small children, because the scenes may really hurt them. I would recommend this for ages 13+, but don't show it to small kids, it'd be like torture.

Love this film. The lead is a star as is his friend's father José. I gotta complain though about the plot conceit to add drama. Child abuse in Madrid is a crime; this is confirmed at the end of the film. The obvious solution should start with the police. The boy is going to have broken healed bones everywhere, including his nose, no matter what he's willing to admit. Why deal with all-night legal discussions, an emergency room, and driving the streets of Madrid looking for El Bola. Their friend giving them legal advice failed to take this child directly to La Policia, required by law, as was the physician's and nurse's duty. The writer could have included the legal facts and safest help for Pablo by going straight to the police. And, there's no need to notify Pablo's parents that you've got their son; it's the middle of the night and everything can be faced four hours later in the morning without any fear of a kidnapping charge (ridiculous, because the number of witnesses involved, no one could not pin this on anyone but the father - with his bruised hands. I don't mean to quibble; I just hate when a terrific story is marred by incredulity.

What is particulary gut-wrenching about this film is being reminded very vividly how utterly helpless our children actually are once delivered to the mercies of adults. It must remind one of Dostoevsky's great parable questioning the very foundations of faith and life on this planet: the tears of a brutalized child, how can anything be right if the innocence itself gets choked and humiliated so early on? Who knows how many millions upon millions of defencless little men and women gets brutalized physically and mentally on an endless train of abuse? And to think that this is the age where there's at least some inkling of how horridly despicable abuse patterns are. +++ *Within this framework, shore, one would find the delicate homage to Les 400 Coups (the amusement park scenes, the friendship among the city boys...) *The music score is so brilliant that is stand out on its very own.

This film breaks no new ground and yet it is a very worthy example of a kind of cinema that very slightly fictionalizes a subject so that something like child abuse can be explored without it seeming like an out and out docudrama. But that's essentially what it is. Here, the filmmaker unfortunately shines no real light on the subject of child abuse; other than to say--its bad. Yet, there are some very fine subtle performances. On display are adult sensibilities. Things are not oversentimentalized.