After his mother loses her parental rights, 13-year-old Roma finds salvation in the Ukrainian revolution, becoming an active Maidan participant. It is a dangerous school of survival, but for the first time in his life Roma feels needed. What happens to a child for whom society has not been able to provide a safe environment to grow into an independent person? As an observant witness outside of the system, the film makes us evaluate how much each of us is prepared to listen to or help those who are less fortunate.

The film “Outside” is interlaced with very personal conversations between the film’s director Olha Zhurba and the main character. The viewer becomes a witness to the teen’s fragile growing-up process, experiencing seven years of filming in 70 minutes. There are no official statistics, but it’s estimated there are several thousand children and youths in Latvia who live in critically bad household circumstances. Support for youths living on the street are provided by several NGOs, for example, the organization “OPEN Radošais Centrs” has opened 18 centres in various Latvian cities – currently the number of regular visitors is over 500.