Here's a movie which makes me think just how bloated and complacent most people (myself, included) are in the west.
Lydia is 13 years old and is HIV.
She lives in a children's home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital. All of the children have HIV.
The opening of Lieven Corthouts' movie shows her being told for the first time that she has the infection and the fact that so do all her friends.
Now she has to move homes because of her age and has a place at 'Little Heaven' where all of the teenagers are, you guessed it, HIV.
Lydia is not well. The movie follows her to hospital where she is examined for a heart problem which means she can no longer play with her friends.
Oh, did I say she lost both parents at the age of six?
So what is most important to Lydia? Her schoolwork. She wants to study hard so she can go on and be a professor.
I wanted to shout at the screen: "Look around you, Lydia. You are in a children's home in one of the poorest nations on earth and you are probably dying. Why bother.''
But I would have had it as wrong as so many people do in our country.
Lydia needs hope and her only hope is through her own work. She does not want to blame anyone else for her situation. It is what it is and she wants to find a way out of it.
It is a message which should be taken to schools and homes all across the UK. where too many people want to blame others for their predicament instead of looking at themselves.
Little Heaven is often a slow movie because it is little more than a fly-on-the-wall doc in a children's home but anyone who watches it will be touched.
The problem is that those who do will probably already have a social conscience. It should really be aimed at those who won't see it.
It is playing at the Ritzy tonight (March 28) and ICA tomorrow as part of Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Lydia