Children of the War

They beat you up for 13 seconds and then you are a member for life of the Mara Salvatrucha. This gang, better known as MS-13, is the fastest growing and most violent gang in Northern and Central America. Globally, the gang has an estimated 100 thousand members, and counting. Its origin lies in the civil war, financed by the US, in El Salvador in the eighties, according to the founders, who are former soldiers in the Salvadoran army and now fathers. They talk frankly about the gang's genesis and operations. "A homie (homeboy) does not reject society, but faces it. He makes society pay for what it has done to him." The authorities are also introduced. They try to ruthlessly crush the gangs but so far this policy has adverse results. In the jam-packed prisons, international networks are created for drug trafficking. Incorporating well-documented footage, the film looks for the cause and consequence of the gangs. Nobody knows the answer in this shady pool of political interests and contradictions, but one thing is clear: "Nobody wants to die." Eventually we all do. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)