Innocent Voices

Innocent Voices is set in El Salvador during the 1980s civil war, where government forces are fighting leftist rebels. At the centre of the story is Chava, an eleven-year-old boy living with his mother and siblings in a village on the outskirts of San Salvador. The army conscripts boys once they turn twelve, which leaves Chava with a single year of childhood before he could be taken. When his father leaves the family, Chava becomes the man of the house while trying to keep up ordinary routines: school, games, friends and his first feelings for a classmate. The film follows his efforts to hold on to a normal life as the fighting closes in.

Luis Mandoki directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Oscar Orlando Torres, whose own childhood inspired the story. It was Mandoki's seventh feature, arriving between Trapped and The Precocious and Brief Life of Sabina Rivas. Carlos Padilla plays Chava, with Xuna Primus, Leonor Varela, José María Yázpik, Gustavo Muñoz and Ofelia Medina among the cast. Lawrence Bender, Mandoki and Elba Luis Lugo produced.

Released in 2005, the film runs 120 minutes and is a co-production of Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States. It holds a rating of 7.8 from around 8,600 votes on IMDb, and 8.2 from over 500 votes on TMDB, indicating a strongly positive response from viewers on both platforms.