10/02/2008

At just eight years old, Leslie is torn away from her games to enter the hell, often without escape, that is child abuse. Her life, like that of thousands of other children around the world, will be marekd by pain without redemption: the pain of life on the streets, drugs and prostitution.

Gardens of the night, the shocking film by Damian Harris, son of Irish actor Richard Harris and best known for his 1995 noir film Bad Company, screened in competition at the Berlinale yesterday, and immediately stirred up a heated debate on an extremely current subject.

As written up in the closing credits, approximately 1.3 million minors live on America’s streets, 60% of which were victims of abuse at an extremely early age.

Harris, who over powerful images prefers harsh dialogue and dirty, hyper-realistic photography, has nevertheless made an uneven film penalised by an overly conventional screenplay.

The director said he did extensive research before writing the first draft of the script: "I travelled around the United States and gathered material, I met with the parents of runaway children, I visited the police departments that fight against child abuse.

"The documentation came together in the first draft of a screenplay, written in 1990. In 2006, my producers and I decided to shoot it anyway, independently, and I financed it myself,” he added.

Gardens of the Night, whose title comes from a Robert Bridges poem, is a UK/US co-production between La Nuit Americaine Films, Station 3 and Fastback Pictures. International sales are being handled by Sobini Films, Lionsgate Films group.

(Translated from Italian)