It was selected as the greatest Argentine film of all time in a poll conducted by the Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken in 2000.

After suffering from harsh treatment at the hands of the staff there, Polin finally reaches a breaking point and snaps, punching one of the supervisors in the face.

Polin soon breaks out and travels back to his hometown, a rural fishing village, where he meets up with his best friend and falls back into his old routine—smoking, pickpocketing, shoplifting, skinny dipping with his friends and picking fights with the neighborhood bullies—all the while trying to avoid a run-in with the law, which he knows is inevitable.

In addition to this, the film's brutal and realistic depiction of Argentina's state-run orphanages at the time caused a great deal of controversy.

The film also contains a controversial scene containing extensive, explicit nudity involving several young Argentine boys skinny dipping.