Director: Marco Pontecorvo
Screenplay: Marco Pontecorvo, Roberto Tiraboschi
Photography: Vincenzo Carpineta
Music: Andrea Guerra
Cast: Jalil Lespert, Evita Ciri, Gabriel Rauta, Patrice Juiff, Bruno Abraham Kremer, Robert Valeanu, Cristina Nita, Liviu Bituc, Florin Precup, Adreea Perminov, Iulian Bucur, Georgiana Anghel, Gabriel Huian, Daniele Formica
Editing: Alessio Doglione
Production: Marco Valerio Pugini, Ute Leonhardt Panorama Films in collaboration with Rai Cinema, Co-production Yalla Films S.a.s. (France), Dominio Film ltd (Romania), and with the support of MiBAC.
International Distribution: Beta Film GmbH, Gruenalder Weg 28\d, 82041 Oberthaching, tel. +49 89 673469/80, fax +49 89 673469, beta@betafilm.com www.betafilm.com
Year: 2008. Running Time: 100’

 

The film tells the true story of French-Algerian clown Miloud Oukili (Jalil Lespert), founder of the circus PA-RA-DA. Miroud arrives in Romania in 1992 (three years after the fall of Ceausescu) and encounters the street children of Bucharest, known as “boskettars”. They live in the streets and sleep in Bucharest's sewers, eking a living out of petty crime, begging, and prostitution. Miloud sees promise in these neglected kids, turned into a quasi-feral state by their tragic past and by drug addiction, and hopes to shine some light in their lives. Although his efforts are at first hampered by corrupt and prejudiced Romanian police officers, Miloud succeeds in creating a real circus company with the “boskettars”. The street children will perform in Bucarest’s main square and, later, all over the world proving that they are not outcasts but human beings.