The Kid Who Lies (El chico que miente)

Year: 2011
Country: VENEZUELA, PERU
Run Time: 99 minutes

Ten years after a horrific mudslide buried tens of thousands in Venezuela, people still live marginal lives by the sea, scrounging for building materials and scraps of memories in mounds of sludge. Many live in villages erected by the government for displaced persons. One curious boy of 13 lives with his deranged father in the open air of a ruined apartment building held together tentatively by cables. The mother has long since disappeared—dead in the mudslide, it seems. With nothing to keep him there, the boy leaves his precarious home and sets off on foot, looking for something. As he makes his way along jewel-hued beaches, he encounters local inhabitants, mostly fishermen. People give him lifts and feed him when they can. One young man hires him to decorate boats for the San Juan Bautista festival. And every time the boy meets someone new, he tells a different story about himself. Just like adults, THE KID WHO LIES tells tales to get what he wants. Or does he? (In Spanish with subtitles) –B.B.

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