Los Olvidados, aka The Forgotten Ones, aka The Young and the Damned

World famous filmmaker Luis Buñuel was born in Spain, but left after Franco’s fascists defeated the Republicans in 1938. He moved to Mexico in 1946, where he lived, on and off, for the rest of his life. Los Olvidados, a remorseless picture about a street gang of predatory 12 year olds who terrorize the poor neighborhood in which they live. Unlike many leftists filmmakers, Buñuel refused to romanticize these victims of poverty, either the vicious boys, who at one point brutalize a blind man, or their targets, thereby creating a scandal, antagonizing the left, the right, and his crew, some of whom quit on the spot. The premiere was a disaster. Diego Rivera’s wife refused to talk to him. But he was championed by no less than Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, and Octavio Paz, and won the Best Director at Cannes that year. Los Olvidados has since been considered a classic.