Baroque'n Roll

An animated film for five- to eight-year-olds on children's right to receive an education. A teacher gives extra, individualized help to a student who is having difficulty with arithmetic and helps her find fun in numbers.

In this animated film for five- to eight-year-olds, a group of schoolchildren are amazed to discover that one of their classmates does not have enough to eat. With the help of their teacher, the children come to understand that his hardship affects them all and that the fight against poverty requires solidarity and sharing. Film without words.

On the way to school, a boy is confronted by an enormous man whose hand grabs hold of his school bag and tosses it into the air. The hand pushes him towards a huge padlock, then forces him to enter through the keyhole: the schoolboy is imprisoned in a hazardous lock factory. Like all the other children inside, he finds himself forced to operate a high-speed punch press. Struggling to follow the movements of the machine, he makes a mistake and cuts off a finger. He then tries to run away, but is pursued by menacing metal lock parts. In fleeing, the boy falls and passes out. We see his memories of his playmates, the songs he played on his flute and his loving, attentive mother. But reality is more tragic. Recaptured, he finds himself back at the factory polishing locks. He starts to cough up blood after inhaling iron particles which will prove lethal: the child dies on the job. Coldly, the hand picks up his body and drops it in the box the padlocks are shipped in, symbol of his murdered innocence. How can we live with forced child labour? This India/Canada co-production is inspired by article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child which particularly upholds the child's right to be protected from economic exploitation. An animated film without words for twelve to seventeen year olds.