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Drama

Los Olvidados

Year
1950
Director
Luis Buñuel
Length
80 minUNESCO original-negative record Version sources ↓

Children surviving on the margins of Mexico City become trapped in cycles of violence, abandonment, labour, and retaliation.

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Country
Mexico
Language
Spanish
BleakTense Approachable · Moderate Drama
A boy stands with his back to us against a bare wall beneath the title.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

What to expect

Buñuel combines social observation with dream, cruelty, sound, and startling subjective images. The film refuses both sentimental rescue and the comforting belief that deprivation automatically creates solidarity.

How to ease in

Keep Pedro and Jaibo distinct: one still reaches for another life, while the other converts injury into control. The dream is not an escape from realism but another record of need.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes violence against children, murder, abuse, poverty, animal harm, sexual threat, disability stigma, and an extremely bleak ending.
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The city keeps assigning adult consequences to children without giving them adult power. I hold onto Pedro’s small attempts to change because the film shows exactly how little room they receive.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Credits
Cast
Alfonso Mejía — Pedro · Roberto Cobo — El Jaibo · Stella Inda — Pedro's mother · Miguel Inclán — Don Carmelo
Screenplay
Luis Buñuel · Luis Alcoriza
Production
Oscar Dancigers · Jaime Menasce · Ultramar Films
Cinematography
Gabriel Figueroa

Version map

UNESCO original-negative record 80 min 80 minutes is attached only to the named UNESCO original-negative record. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred. Source: UNESCO Memory of the World — Los Olvidados Runtime reference · Checked 2026-08-21

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