Los olvidados (pronounced [los olβiˈðaðos], Spanish: The Forgotten Ones; known in the United States as The Young and the Damned) is a 1950 Mexican teen crime film directed by Luis Buñuel.[2] It was filmed at Tepeyac Studios and on location in Mexico City.[3]
Producer Óscar Dancigers sought Buñuel to direct following the success of El Gran Calavera (1949). Buñuel already had a script ready titled ¡Mi huerfanito jefe! about a boy who sells lottery tickets. However, Dancigers had in mind a more realistic and serious depiction of children in poverty in Mexico City. After conducting research, Jesús Camacho and Buñuel came up with a script that Dancigers was pleased with. The film can be seen in the tradition of social realism, although it also contains elements of surrealism present in much of Buñuel's work.
While widely criticized upon initial release, Los olvidados received Best Director at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.[4] It is now considered a staple of Latin American cinema.
