‘Tigers are Not Afraid’ Gives Children a Childhood Amidst Horror
Kids will be kids, even while fighting battles both supernatural and mundane.
The story of Tigers Are Not Afraid is scary enough for children. It is terrifying to viewers as well, because the true horrors are all real. Children today see things we could never have made up.
The movie opens with Estrella (Paola Lara) losing everything and going for help to neighborhood kid Shine (Juan Ramón López) and his gang. It is implied that these children have already lost everything. As the story progresses however, it seems that while all of them are fairly well versed in surviving on the streets, they may have only too recently lost their parents.
This is solidified by pictures on a cell phone. This phone will be the focal point or the catalyst of every major conflict for the rest of the film. It is a prop: the children have no one to call, no one to go to for help. Rather than being a tool it becomes a reminder of their own brief mortality.
The childrens’ transition into transience and survival implies that life in this hostile environment was a hardship always considered, just beneath the surface of their otherwise domestic lives. Yet through out the film, children are allowed ample time to be children. They play, they dance, they celebrate each other’s victories…
