holybyevil I'm not a film buff nor attend film festivals, however after watching this 2003 film was very impressed with the real to life saga of young people living on their own... A Blair Witch Project... inasmuch as how terrible for young people growing up alone without the guidance a loving parent(s). On the other hand, how terrible the idea children living alone could have such beautiful fun without some old miser, such as commenter below bearing down on their every movement.Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide:" Actress Isild Le Besco (Girls Can't Swim) makes her feature debut as a director with Demi-Tarif (Half-Price). The movie, shot on digital video on a miniscule budget, garnered attention in its native France after renowned filmmaker Chris Marker compared the experience of seeing it to the experience he and his friends had upon seeing Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless for the first time. Demi-Tarif follows the low-key adventures of three young siblings, Romeo (Kolia Litscher), Launa (Lila Salet), and the youngest, Leo (Cindy David), left on their own in a rundown Paris apartment. One of them narrates, wistfully explaining how their mother abandoned them and calls them once in a while to see how they are doing or tell them she loves them. The three kids do as they please, roaming the streets, running out of restaurants without paying for food, and shoplifting from the local grocery store. They eat whatever and whenever they want, gorging themselves on sweets. They beg for change on the Metro and show up late for school in tattered, dirty clothes. All the while, they try to keep the fact that they are alone a secret from the world of adults. Demi-Tarif had its U.S. premiere at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival."

angelina-jolie-77 While watching this Movie, I was repeatably thinking about, if this Movie was a live-documentation or all set up... But more then this I did like this fine feeling of the director for the kids - amazing! Only a few movies are able, to let me feel like a child again; this one did the best. I mean, I just did not only remember my childhood, with this movie, I really was a child while watching it! Finally, the movie gives you such a close look into happily unhappy child's that you don't know, if you should smile or cry... If someone does not understand this movie and walked out, then he or she should take a closer look to all the awards of the director an then think again - maybe not the movie is wrong, but maybe the one who walked out? Just great! Thanks for that movie!

jalawa-2 This is an exquisite tone poem about childhood, and abandonment, and freedom. I saw this a year ago and still can't get it out of my mind. Isild le Besco, perhaps the most gifted actress of her generation in France, and the most haunting screen presence, shows herself to be a greatly gifted director as well. She has crafted a delicate and very moving story from the simplest of elements. It's a film that in many ways reminds me of Truffaut's "The Four Hundred Blows." Without much in the way of exposition or dialogue, we enter into the minds of the parentless kids as they move about Paris hustling to stay alive and in school. It gives a wonderful feeling of the city, as seen from the level of a child's eye, and of how the world looks to children who are trying to navigate life without the usual protection of adults. I was entranced

smammolos Telling the story of a "different family" from the viewpoint of one of the children, this is an extremely light and "little" film. Somewhere between Truffaut's "Les Quatre Cents Coups" and Pippi Longstocking. Entirely shot with a DV camera, with the director's apartment as the set and casting her brother in one of the main characters. It was funny and entertaining while watching at it while it grew deeper after a while, hours after, leaving me with a slight anxiety, in fact. It is something that I would call a fake-umentary, that forces all the time the viewers to remember to themselves that they are watching a feature film and not a TV reportage. In my opinion the fact that the director "refers" all the time to both TV documentaries and home videos is one of the most interesting side of this film. Just go and see it unless you are the kind who thinks that special effects are a must.