The Unvarnished Boy

Billy Elliot

September 2000 •English

County Durham, England, 1984. The miners' strike has started and the police have started coming up from Bethnal Green, starting a class war with the lower classes suffering. Caught in the middle of the conflict is 11-year old Billy Elliot, who, after leaving his boxing club for the day, stumbles upon a ballet class and finds out that he's naturally talented. He practices with his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson for an upcoming audition in Newcastle-upon Tyne for the royal Ballet school in London.

Goli Soda

January 2014 •Tamil

Four lads find themselves in a situation where they have to take on a powerful man (and his innumerable henchmen) to reclaim their identity.

Return to Innocence

May 2001 •English

A searing legal drama that centers on a highly credentialed child psychologist whose life is shattered when he's accused of sexually assaulting a young boy he's been treating.

Final Round

December 2022 •French

Rachid is a young man who survives in Morroco boxing in clandestine fights in order to save enough money with which to pay a smuggler, and be able to cross the Strait of Gibraltar with his two friends.

Mouth to Mouth

June 2005 •English

An aimless adolescent joins several itinerant misfits who live on the fringe of society and welcome at-risk youths into their fold.

Engel & Joe

October 2001 •German

A love story of a 17 year old punk-rocker and a 15 year old runaway girl.

Crooklyn

May 1994 •English

From Spike Lee comes this vibrant semi-autobiographical portrait of a school-teacher, her stubborn jazz-musician husband and their five kids living in '70s Brooklyn.

Perro callejero

February 1980 •Spanish

An abandoned child steals to survive and has problems when he decides to steal from the priest who helps him.

The Life Ahead

November 2020 •Italian

In seaside Italy, a Holocaust survivor with a daycare business takes in a 12-year-old street kid who recently robbed her.

Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets

September 2000 •French

Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's revenge. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib's gang. Matters are getting serious.

Boys on the Outside

September 1990 •Italian

Young men with no future have little in the present as well. Natale is released from prison: he takes up with his friends again but none can find work. Claudio, from Palermo, gets out of juvenile detention in Naples and he's met by Vita, a girl who's come from home to run away with him. Where can they go? A young dad, whose potato stall at the market is shut down because he has no permit, takes his two small children to the beach and yells at them. Mario, gay, a prostitute in drag, gets a visit from his mom; he offers tea, then finds the water to his apartment is shut off. Social workers drop by, parole officers file reports. What hope is there? What options besides crime?

The Devil Is a Sissy

September 1936 •English

A well-bred young English lad living in lower Manhattan tries to gain acceptance from his not-so-well-bred peers at school.

Kim

December 1950 •English

During the British Raj, the orphan of a British soldier poses as a Hindu and is torn between his loyalty to a Buddhist mystic and aiding the English secret service.

Let No Man Write My Epitaph

November 1960 •English

Nick Romano lives in a poor tenement building on the south side of Chicago with his well-meaning but drug-addicted mother, Nellie. She encourages him to pursue his piano-playing talent in hopes that it will bring him a better life. Nellie's neighbors, like the alcoholic ex-lawyer who secretly loves her, help her in keeping Nick away from Louie, the resident drug dealer. But a chance meeting between Nick and Louie could change things forever.

Saving Grace

October 1998 •English

Grace is a homeless teenager. She befriends an unemployed carpenter and he invites her to share his flat. She moves in and to her surprise a delicate relationship develops. He helps her repair her shattered self-esteem and she begins to feel loved and secure. But then she discovers his secret - he tells her he is Jesus Christ.

Boy of the Streets

January 1938 •English

Cocky young street kid worships his father, a sleazy political operative.

Mr. Hidayet

May 2025 •Turkish

Hidayet Usta is a shoemaker in his early 80s who has made a living repairing shoes. Having separated from his wife years ago and with a strained relationship with his children, Hidayet lives alone, but contentedly in his own world.

BIRD IN THE SKY

August 2005 •English

BIRD IN THE SKY is a gritty, poetic tale of a young man’s spiritual struggle on the streets of New York City. Rob has been given a second chance to right the wrongs of his street-wise past; he must perform a miracle to be saved. His fate lies in his love for a young woman, Kay, who is coping with the loss of her child.

Vagabond

October 2003 •Hungarian

Karesz has been raised in an institution, his mother has a new family, and her husband does not tolerate that she meets her first-born son. Karesz tramps, joining up with his casual pals he washes the windscreens of cars, sells newspapers; sometimes they steal, or break into houses if hired.

The Man from the Embassy

November 2007 •German