This is such an unlikely story of seven siblings who were raised in the heart of New York’s Lower East Side by a tyrannical father and subservient mother who only allowed them to venture outside the front door of their apartment once or twice a year throughout their childhood, that it at first seems like that it could not possibly be true. It is however very much the stuff that movies are made off, and part of the extraordinary drama of these ‘imprisoned’ young brothers (and one almost silent sister) is that their reality is based on re-enacting in precise detail all their favorite movies that for some inexplicable reason they have been allowed to watch on their battered old television. Most of them are violent and pure escapism, and the fact Tarantino’s ‘Reservoir Dogs’ tops the list, speaks volumes.
Filmed by first time director Crystal Moselle over 5 years and incorporating some archival homemade footage it witnesses the children getting home schooled and obediently accepting their parents reasoning for keeping them so isolated from the world outside that they often look and stare at from the windows of their high rise apartment. Oscar their Peruvian father, a Hare Krishna devotee, had met their American free-spirited mother on a hippy trail in Manchu Picchu and had subsequently given all the children Hindu diety names. Rarely seen on camera until the end of the film he doesn’t believe in the whole concept of working for a living but would have been happy becoming a rock star. Ruling the family mainly through terror and fear from behind a closed door he considers himself almost god-like and is unchallenged until the boys start to act defiantly like the young men they become.
All the boys, very good-looking with their waist length hair, are happy enough to articulate their feelings which develop as they grow and although they remain a tight knit group that still derive so much pleasure for their intense play-acting which one senses is the reason they remain so sane. When one of the actually dares to venture outside on his own when he turns 15 year old is dressed up as Batman, he is picked up by the Police and lands in a Mental Institution for a short while.
Director Moselle never offers any explanation at any level and at any time and lets the family talk for itself. They are mainly so guarded in what they reveal that even through they are extremely coherent, so much of their intriguing story is subsequently left to supposition. There is so much unanswered including the very crucial question as to why/how this very secretive family ever permitted a stranger in their midst to document their life in this manner.
The fact that the brothers are immensely likable and have such a passion for everything they turn their hands too, and even when they finally realize what a despot their father is, their devotion to their mother never wavers one iota, contributes to make this such a compelling viewing. Watching them journey from oppression to freedom is unquestionable uplifting but it does beg the need for Moselle to go back to see how they all fare, as by the end we are all so committed to their futures too.
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