Tattooed Tears

For their first American film, Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill initially planned to stay only a few weeks in a detention centre for boys between 18 and 21 in California. They ended up staying for three months, in which they often slept in the prison and gradually won the boys‘ trust. The result is a gripping account of the tough daily lives of the young convicts and the attempts that are made to put them back on the rails. We get acquainted with four boys, who tell their stories in front of the camera. One of them has tattooed tears on his face, one for each year he has to stay in prison. Like the others, he tries to preserve his dignity in the occasionally humiliating circumstances. He refuses to acquiesce to the rules and resists any form of treatment.