The Sandpit Generals is a movie created in 1971

1971 in film

The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...

 by Hall Bartlett

Hall Bartlett

Hall Bartlett was an American film producer, director, and screen writer.-Early life:Born in Kansas City, Missouri, he graduated from Yale University Phi Beta Kappa, and was a Rhodes Scholar nominee...

. Its plot is based on the novel

Capitães da Areia

Capitães de Areia is a Brazilian Modernist novel. It was written by Jorge Amado in 1936.His novel tells of the Captains of the Sands, a gang of one hundred orphans and abandoned children. They are seven to fifteen years old and live by stealing, abandoned in the streets of Bahia, Brazil....

 by Jorge Amado

Jorge Amado

Jorge Leal Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands in 1978...

. Melodious soundtracks were written by Dorival Caymmi

Dorival Caymmi

Dorival Caymmi was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, actor, and painter active for more than 70 years beginning in 1933...

.

The movie features a street gang of poor homeless

Homelessness

Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence." The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country...

 youth struggling for existence in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. After letting a girl with her little brother settle in their beach shelter, the gang's inner spirit is gradually reformed. She brought a sense of love and family into their shabby abode. One of the local priest

Priest

A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...

s helps the gang at the cost of his clergy career. Police captured the main characters and after their lengthy stay in prison, the girl is terminally ill. Her sudden death is a culmination of the movie, it urges the gang to fight for their rights against the government.

The movie was not popular in the United States due to its socialist context, but became an iconic movie in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, where it took part at the Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow International Film Festival

Moscow International Film Festival , is the film festival first held in Moscow in 1959. From its inception to 1995 it was held every second year in July, alternating with the Karlovy Vary festival. The festival has been held annually since 1995....

 and, although did not win any prize, in a few years was widely distributed in movie theaters and was proclaimed "the best foreign film" by Komsomolskaya Pravda

Komsomolskaya Pravda

Komsomolskaya Pravda is a daily Russian tabloid newspaper, founded on March 13th, 1925. It is published by "Izdatelsky Dom Komsomolskaya Pravda" .- History :...

newspaper in 1974.