Based on a true fact. Director Joël Farges said, "In 1996, during a stay in Manila, I was told the tragic story of thousands of children "rented" for a fishing season to parents with no other resources. Thrown into the sea, these boys, tied to a stone to weigh them down, would dive to dizzying depths. They would break the corals to scare the fish into a huge net. I met more than seventy survivors of this fishery who all testified to the state of our world today."
The young actors of this movie are played by Filipino children, most of them from very poor families. It was heartbreaking to choose from among the hundreds of applicants for the casting," says director Joël Farges. Getting a role was more than a salary for them: it was the assurance of being able to eat for a month. The director, who has kept in touch "via Skype" with several of his young actors, hopes the film will give them a leg up on a better life. But without having too many illusions: "The filming was barely finished when some of them were again going through the garbage."