Clean Hands

A family living on a garbage dump is gifted a house (by a philanthropist). The only condition is to send their (four) children to school. Is this a real-life fairytale? The Lopez children, aged between 6 and 10, live with their parents on La Chureca, Central America’s largest garbage dump. They have never been to school and, unlike their parents, don’t fully grasp what they don’t have. The dump is the only world they have ever known. Then an amazing opportunity for everyone comes up and turns into a complex tale of love and loss, rescue and salvation. "Clean Hands is a powerful story of real human drama, which isn’t artificial or dramatized for the sake of the cameras. This is a real family who have their individual flaws, but are just trying to better their lives." (filmotomy.com)

Keywords

  • Award Winning
  • Exclusive Docs: New Perspectives
  • Screen: Latin America
  • Sooner Exclusives
  • Topic: No Planet B
  • Childhood
  • civil society
  • economy
  • family
  • latin america
  • school

Director

  • Michael Dominic

Documentary, Independent


1h 41min


16+

ES


EN

DE

Nicaragua
United States of America
2019
A penniless family living on a rubbish dump is offered a house. The condition is that they send their children to school. Is this a fairy tale?

A penniless family living on a rubbish dump is offered a house. The condition is that they send their children to school. Is this a fairy tale?


A family living on a garbage dump is gifted a house (by a philanthropist). The only condition is to send their (four) children to school. Is this a real-life fairytale?


The Lopez children, aged between 6 and 10, live with their parents on La Chureca, Central America’s largest garbage dump. They have never been to school and, unlike their parents, don’t fully grasp what they don’t have. The dump is the only world they have ever known.

Then an amazing opportunity for everyone comes up and turns into a complex tale of love and loss, rescue and salvation.


"Clean Hands is a powerful story of real human drama, which isn’t artificial or dramatized for the sake of the cameras. This is a real family who have their individual flaws, but are just trying to better their lives." (filmotomy.com)

Cast & Crew