A fast-moving, breathless, and heartbreaking film that leads us straight to hell and back. In 1999, in response to a call for help from Moldova, a Northern Irish non-governmental organization specializing in humanitarian action sent a convoy to the former Soviet republic wedged between Romania and the Ukraine. An orphanage housing over 200 abandoned children is in a desperate state. Food and medicine are scarce, and there is no heating, health care, or education. The children live like animals and those with physical and mental disabilities are left to look after themselves. The volunteers accompanying the convoy are ordinary people with little or no experience in this kind of humanitarian work, and their efforts to distribute food and medicine are initially impeded by local corruption and bureaucratic incompetence. After a year of struggles and several trips back to the orphanage, persistence starts to pay off, and the children's rediscovered smiles are the best reward. Produced by Julia Jakobek for the BBC.

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