Set in Sicily in the 1930's, director Aurelio Grimaldi chronicles the harsh life of 12 y/o Acla, sold by his father to work in the underground sulfur mines.
Imagine that: a father sells his own son to another person from Monday to Friday, including the right for the owner to beat him. For a work that is definitely unsuitable for children: tugging kilos of encumbrance through a mine!
Acla tries to escape this horror, but he gets caught and his father beats him half to death for that. Damn, you should hang animals like this in public!
The IMDb says in their plot-description: "Brutal film about the exploitation of a young Italian boy, who is virtually sold to the operators of a sulphur mine where he is beaten and sexually molested." There is one pervert that always tries to abuse him sexually. Fortunately he doesn't succeed.
This isn't the type of film I can enjoy, but I see more sense in narrations like this than those of the type "For a lost soldier".
You can still enjoy the gallery because the boy is very beautiful:
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