The Sandpit Generals

The Sandpit Generals (also released as The Defiant and The Wild Pack) is 1971 drama film directed by Hall Bartlett. Its plot is based on the novel by Jorge Amado. Melodious soundtracks were written by Dorival Caymmi. The film features a street gang of poor homeless youth struggling for existence in Brazil. After letting a girl with her little brother settle in their beach shelter, the gang's inner spirit is gradually reformed. She brought a sense of love and family into their shabby abode. One of the local priests helps the gang at the cost of his clergy career. Police captured the main characters and after their lengthy stay in prison, the girl is terminally ill. Her sudden death is a culmination of the movie, it urges the gang to fight for their rights against the government. The film was not popular in the United States due to its socialist context, but became an iconic film in the Soviet Union, where it took part in the 7th Moscow International Film Festival and, although did not win any prize, in a few years was widely distributed in movie theaters and was proclaimed "the best foreign film" by Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in 1974.