presents
To Our Children Movie
a movie by François Boueyrie

TO OUR CHILDREN

Stripped of all spectacular effects, this film is a discreet immersion in the lives of three children: Valter, Tina and Cesilia.

Plunge into the heart of three families, three educational environments, three realities of life in the Brazilian favelas, the Madagascan bush and the Zambian plains.

Young director François Boueyrie takes a back seat behind the camera to put the little ones in the spotlight.

“To Our Children is an invitation to contemplate and reflect on transmission and hope at the heart of the poorest situations.

A moment of pure emotion!

To Our Children is an authentic account of hope, joy, love and determination at the heart of the daily lives of three children and all the people who give of themselves to help them grow up.

To Our Children is an authentic account of hope, joy, love and determination at the heart of the daily lives of three children and all the people who give of themselves to help them grow up.

THE FILM'S HEROES
Tina
Vozama School, Ambodihady - Madagascar

Tina, aged 6, grew up in a rural area of Madagascar. Her parents live lavishly and bring up their three children with heart and responsibility. Every day, Tina goes to Vozama to learn to read, write and count.

Cesilia
St. Daniel's Preschool Chikowa - Zambia
In Zambia, 10-year-old Cesilia lives with her aunt and uncle. They see her as their own daughter and are determined to fulfil her mother's dream of sending her to school. Even if they deprive themselves, they give everything so that their children can learn.
Valter
Tutoring Urugual Salvador de Bahia -Brazil
In Brazil's favelas, young people have few opportunities for the future. Many are drawn, against their will, into violence and the spiral of drug trafficking. A diligent student, Valter, aged 11, was given the opportunity to join a tutoring programme.
They ask me: "Mom, aren’t you going to study anymore?", "Aren’t you going to continue your dreams?" And I tell them: "yes". "But now, it's time to take care of you". I teach them everything I can. Everything. For they give value to life. We learn to love, we learn to understand, we learn to live, to understand the other.
Elinea, Valter's mum
I want my Children to learn. I stay with my illiteracy, because I didn't finish school.
I can't leave my children to be illiterate like me.
Enelys Zulu, Cesilia’s aunt
Working with the children in the tutoring programme, I discovered their life, their context, their story. I discovered little by little. Working with them has humanized me, made me more human, gave me a different outlook on the other. I learned to understand the other not only with his attitude, but with his history too.
Vania, teacher at the Urugual tutoring programme
in Salvador de Bahia
When Cesilia was 6 or 7 years old, her mother asked me: "now I want that this child go to school ». And I consider her like one of my children. Exactly the same. I want my children to finish school and after it, their life will be easier than mine.
David Zulu, Cesilia's uncle
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Synopsis
Tina, Valter and Cesilia are three children who seem to have nothing in common. Except for the hopeful outlook and unconditional love they share with their families and teachers.

It's a commitment that stands the test of time, whatever the insecurities of their respective places of life: the valleys of Madagascar, the favela of Brazil or the great plains of Zambia.
THE DIRECTOR
François Boueyrie
Journalist specializing in social and environmental issues, François Boueyrie signs with To Our Children his first feature film.
A documentary film that fully unites the two aspirations that led him to this profession: bringing people together and giving a voice to those who have the least.
A FILM PRODUCED BY
"It's a great lesson in hope that comes from giving of oneself. In this film, we are plunged into life contexts that are very different from our own.

And it's not just the lives of three children in the four corners of the world.

To Our Children tells an even deeper story, the story of their parents, their educators: a generation that gives of itself for the generation that follows.

It's a story of transmission.
Emeric Clair
Director of Fidesco
For over 40 years, Fidesco has been supporting development projects run by local Church partners in Asia, Africa and Latin America. They call on Fidesco to strengthen and sustain the local projects they have initiated. Our partners – dioceses, parishes, congregations and Catholic foundations – need skills that they cannot find locally. Fidesco works alongside them by developing missions to serve the poorest people and help them to develop the countries to which the volunteers are sent.

Every year, around a hundred volunteers join our partners in the field to work and live with the poorest people. They put their skills and their faith at the service of others. Nearly 2,000 volunteers have already had the experience of service, an experience that is fundamental from a human, spiritual and professional point of view.

THE FILM TEAM

Director: François Boueyrie ​

Original score: Elyo Garnier

Mixing: Guillaume Morisod

Calibration: Clément Steffen

Nyanja translation: Grace Banda

Malagasy translation: Frère Frédéric Randrianarisoa et Sylvie Randrianarisoa

Brazilian translation:Ariane Leroy, Benoît Liot de Nortbécourt, Daniela Ribeiro, Rafaelo Tugores

In collaboration with : Chikowa Youth Development Center, NGO Vozama and Ser Criança em Alagados