Telling of a young boy suffering the severity and capricious brutality of life in a juvenile detention center, Leonardo Favio's acclaimed 1964 film holds its own among the classics of such chronicles, from Truffaut's The Four Hundred Blows to Babenco's Pixote. The boy, Polín (Diego Puente), escapes to the labyrinthine shantytown where he lives with his mother, but economic scarcity inevitably drives him back to the emotional poverty of the correction center. Shooting in a series of short, evocative scenes, Favio effectively breaks the claustrophobic atmosphere with a bucolic moment when Polín treats himself to a swim in the river-only to be taunted by young toughs for his institution-shaved head. Of Favio, John King writes in The Garden of Forking Paths, "This major sixties cineast is characterized by simplicity, poetry, and an atmospheric feel that, although reminiscent of Bresson, is unique-as indeed, is Favio himself."