An intense portrayal of life at the extremes, Born into Brothels is a movie that challenges our perception of human resilience. The documentary takes place in Calcutta, India, home to one of the oldest populations and religious doctrines in the world. India is a country with an extraordinary history, yet suffers from massive overpopulation, environmental degradation, extreme poverty, and religious strife. (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html) Calcutta is the second largest city in India and one of the largest in the world, the square mileage of its metropolitan area measured at 228.5 sq mi. Within this unforgiving landscape is the red light district, a city within a city, known to openly display many of society's
This playful youthfulness as a theme starts early and continues throughout the film, even in instances such as when Avijita loses his mother after her pimp burns her to death. The children show a remarkable ability to completely understand the situation in which they live, yet still rely on the magic of youth to counteract its effects. A perfect example takes place as one of the youth gets water from the local well. As an older women shouts profanity at the girl, she says that if you can accept that life is about pain and suffering, then you will be able to live happily. All the Calcutta youth display the same wonderment that American child claim as birth right, while seeming thoroughly appreciative for the chance to simply be introduced to a camera. Many of the youth started displaying such strong internal loci of control as the movie evolved and really took responsibility for their own futures. The young people of the Brothels encounter diversity issues related to enrollment in boarding schools. The children of sex workers are systemically, not legally barred from many of the boarding or prestigious schools of Calcutta. At one point in the film, the director is at a school run by a successful missionary. The missionary's explanation for denying the youth is fear that their (perceived) negative habits will affect the other students and lead