Filmwax screening of KARLA'S ARRIVAL

Dir. Koen Suidgeest, 2010, 90 min, DocumentarySpecial Guest: Producer Emily Lobsenz & a Skype session with filmmaker Koen Suidgeest

Raising a baby on the streets can be a blessing. A young girl's negative sense of self-worth might prevent her from saving herself, but once she has chosen to become a mother, she will resolve to leave the streets for the love of her child. 

The documentary film KARLA'S ARRIVAL follows 19-year old mother Sujeylin Aguilar and baby Karla, who live as part of a group of kids in a small park in Managua (Nicaragua), as they struggle through the first year of the child's life. The story starts three months before Karla's birth and ends around its first birthday. 

For eight years now, Sujeylin has been living off the generosity of her wheeling-and-dealing boyfriend and the NGO's peppering the city. She doesn't expect the arrival of her baby to change much in her own life, planning to raise her in the park where she forms part of a group of colorful characters she considers her only family. Yet she never imagined the scope of the immediate challenges and dangers facing her young daughter. 

KARLA'S ARRIVAL takes its audience on the intense personal journey of a young woman's venture into motherhood under extreme circumstances. Narrated by the protagonist herself and told with gracious intimacy, the film offers a story full of hope, covering a universal issue we have not before been exposed to.