In the 19th century, children -- particularly the children of the poor -- were considered to be an exploitable resource of docile and cheap labor. Anyone who had the effrontery to steal so much as a portion of a loaf of bread for any reason would (at the very least) go to prison, regardless of their age. However, people of conscience were beginning to protest against this situation. The story takes place in a prison for children where conditions are particularly harsh. The warden is a thick-headed martinet who demands complete compliance with the rules, or the children will be brutally dealt with. The assistant warden is a more modern man, and is appalled by the whole institution, but seeks to begin by reforming it. To that end, he has invited a journalist to come and see the conditions that prevail there, in the hopes that she will rouse public opinion against at least this one form of injustice.
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The director,who was anxious to get messages across often calls Victor Hugo for help:the great writer was a children's right activist and one of his poems begins like this "Où vont tous ces enfants dont pas un seul ne rit" (Where do these children go ,none of them smiling?).Hugo was speaking of children's work in the mines and mills.Here the children are sent to a penal colony .The director tells them they build a big family:don't they call the wardens "the cousins"?The movie is so poor one can barely feel the despair,the sufferings and the humiliations the poor brats endure.A countess comes to the colony ,in order to write an article and feebly sides with them.A rebellion begins.SPOILER:the revolt is crushed ,and in order to secure a relatively happy end,the countess takes in one of the little survivors.As Bunuel showed in "Viridiana" (1961)"what's the point of saving one dog where there are lots of mistreated dogs in this world?"
