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130 Children

View on the Pragda STREAM site

A pioneering Chilean–Costa Rican documentary, "130 Children" chronicles the extraordinary life of Melba (65) and Víctor (70), who have built a family spanning over 40 years—raising six biological children and more than 130 foster children.

The film opens with an intimate portrait of morning rituals in a household of forty-plus individuals preparing for school, university, and daily life—until the house falls silent as they depart. Through this quietude, the documentary invites reflections on kinship beyond genetics, collective caregiving, and intergenerational responsibility.

Director Ainara Aparici uses observational cinema to interrogate questions of sustainable family structures, hope, and compassion, making the work a compelling case for scholars in social anthropology, family studies, and human rights cinema.

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