Twelve-year-old Mohammad Rizwan is happy when the filthy fuel tankers arrive. Here, next to Pakistan’s second largest oil depot, children crawl inside the dark interior of the diesel tanks to clean them – in spite of the fumes, which are extremely carcinogenic. For this Mohammad is paid one euro a day. His family needs the money and there’s no time for school. But Mohammad doesn’t seem unhappy; he adores his little sister and knows no other life. This decidedly sober documentary portrait shows how child labour has become a widespread normality. The fact that these horrific conditions are obviously taken for granted remains one of the film’s most shocking aspects.
