A child’s eye view of the ’80s civil war in El Salvador, based on the personal experiences of screenwriter Oscar Orlando Torres. Eleven-year-old schoolboy Chava (C🌱arlos Padilla) is the “man of his house in his family&r𒀰dquo;, helping his seamstress mother (Leoner Varela) look after his younger siblings after Dad’s sudden departure for the US. Their village, however, is the location of fierce gun-battles between government forces and left-wing rebels.

Mexican director Luis Mandoki can&rsquo⛄;t resist diluting a wrenching story with off-puttingly sentimental touches: Chava getting to fall in love with a pretty classmate and dancing down the street to ‘I Will Survive’. Visually overwrought, Innocent Voices offers no real contextual analysis of the con♏flict, instead falling back on the platitudes that war is hell and that brave individuals can miraculously triumph over adversity.