Karla's Arrival

Short Synopsis

Karla's Arrival is a human-rights documentary about a teenage mother raising her newborn on the same streets she herself grew up in. The film follows Sujeylin, a young mother living in a park in Managua Nicaragua, and her baby, Karla, through the first year of the child’s life; their complicated personal journey reveals a universal story and a dire human rights issue which has yet to be told.

Description/Treatment

Karla's Arrival is a human rights documentary about babies who are born and raised on the streets. They make up the second generation of street children, those whose parents also grew up homeless. This is an unstudied phenomenon of a generation which tends to be entirely invisible to statistics.

The film follows a young mother, Sujeylin and her baby, Karla who live as part of a group of kids in a small park in Managua, Nicaragua, as they struggle through the first year of the child’s life. The story starts with the child’s birth, the 15th of March 2009, and ends on the baby’s first birthday. Between those two moments, Karla's Arrival takes its audience on the intense personal journey of a Sujeylin’s venture into motherhood under the most extreme circumstances. While she realizes the bleakness of her baby’s prospects in life, she will resolve to leave the streets and start a new life for the love of her child. Karla's Arrival follows her complicated personal journey to cover a universal story shoved aside with the street-litter by governments around the world; a story that must be told.

The film is relevant on several levels. Globally, it reveals a reality lurking in the shadows of many big cities: new generations of homeless youths struggling to survive but ignored by their governments. While exploring specific human rights issues, it delves into the complex universal experiences of accepting parental obligations. Furthermore, it scrutinizes the human capability to accept life’s circumstances and form a personal set of values within its boundaries. Finally, it tells the personal story of Sujeylin Aguilar and her daughter as they try to form a fragile family in the poorest of environments.

Karla's Arrival contains all ingredients to become a universally poignant and intriguing film. As the unofficial leader of the street-group to which she belongs, Sujeylin captivates us with her intelligence, wit and strength. Her strong character at once enriches the storyline and complicates the viewers’ response. Despite her extreme circumstances, we relate to her rather than just pity her circumstances. She is about to embark on a universal journey during which she will ask the same questions, trouble over the same doubts, and relish in the same moments that parenthood imparts upon us all. Yet, her fate continually draws her in the opposite direction. Will she manage to offer her daughter opportunities? Will the baby bring about the changes in herself she so much longs for?

Karla's Arrival raises awareness for a growing problem: homeless youths are starting families on the very streets they themselves have been growing up in. But the newborns will encounter more desperate problems than those of their parents, who often have had a few years of education and tend to be on the run from abusive families or poverty. In turn, the new generation isn’t likely to ever go to school, won’t have a reference of home, and do not have their own families to be hiding from. Generally these kids won’t be registered as citizens of their countries, as governments turn their cheeks, a community of street roamers proliferates invisible to international statistics. Despite the inherent differences of this new generation, no separate research on second-generation street children is being carried out, nor are books being written or films being made. All street children are treated as one and the same. Karla's Arrival aims to bring this new angle to international awareness, encouraging dialogue and action.