This short but affecting movie was produced as a, promotional tool by the New York Fresh Air Fund, a charity dedicated to providing short breaks for children living in the slums of that city. A poor boy sells newspapers for his precarious living. His alcohol ravaged mother abuses him and he finds respite when taken for an excursion into the surrounding countryside. During the picnic he socialises with other children and listens, rapt, to a tale of an enchanted, fairytale world where he sees himself as a prince rescued from the clutches of an evil witch (his real life mother). In the the vision he is rescued by a young woman with a magic wand and transported to the Land of Eternal Happiness. When the time comes to return to the city and the life of abuse and grinding poverty he opts to stay behind. He makes a choice, the importance and implications of which are monumental. The closing shots are incredibly moving. Pure poetry. The movie is an expert blend of social realism and fairy tale. Undeniably sentimental, it is also utterly memorable.
Review of The Land Beyond the Sunset
