User reviews

It deals with a child named David (Enrique Saldana) who is adopted by an ominous , treacherous sect led by a stiff-upper-lip ruler (Lucia Bose) and an understanding woman called Victoria (Maribel Martin) . But David along with a young called Edgar (David Sust) and a pregnant girl called Victoria (Lisa Gerrard) escape from the terrible fascist and Nazi-alike center towards Africa where David's fate awaits him . As David who possesses extrasensory perception undergoes an adventurous voyage throughout Africa and to resolve his fate as Child Of The Moon . But David and Victoria are mercilessly chased by the heinous organization .

This is an eerie film with fantastic events , mystery , suspense , adventures and results to be pretty interesting . Being well produced by the marriage Maribel Martin and the early deceased Julian Mateos , both of them produced three thought-provoking films : Los Santos Inocentes , Viaje a Ninguna Parte and this El Niño De La Luna . Interpretations by the enjoyable main cast are frankly well . Adequate support cast such as Lucia Bose , Mary Carrillo , a brief acting by a young Luis Homar , Jordi Bosch , uncredited Pep Tosar and Gunter Meisner who starred Agusti Villaronga's previous film : Tras El Cristal .

Colorful and brilliant cinematography by the veteran photographer Jaume Peracaula. Jaume is considered to be one of the best Spanish cameramen who has photographed a lot of successes such as : Inconscientes , La Hora De Los Valientes , Despues Del Sueño , Blanca Paloma , La Cripta , among others . Mysterious and New Age musical score by Dead Can dance (band led by Lisa Gerrard). Lisa Gerrard , subsequently became a famous soundtrack composer with hits as Gladiator , Ali , Man on fire , Heat and Priest . The motion picture was well directed by Agusti Villaronga , though it has some flaws , gaps and turns out to be overlong . Agusti is a good filmmaker , and Goya winner . As ¨Niño De La Luna¨ won Goyas for screenplay , costume design and make-up . Villaronga is expert on films plenty of dark and weird atmospheres such as : El Mar , 99.9 , Aro Tolbukhin , Tras El Cristal , and his most successful film was ¨Pan Negro¨ that also won several Goya Awards

Villaronga's next movie after the magnificent IN A GLASS CAGE feels undercooked. There is a premise and there is a central character, but aspects of this "fantasy" are muddled.

The plot involves a wise child (Enrique Saldana), identified as possessing special powers, taking part in a pilgrimage that takes him to Africa -- it's a KUNDUN-esqe journey that hints at a religious, faith-based revelation that never materializes. The reason for there being "interest" in the child, from some quarters, is never fully explained, summing up the film's major problem: Too much is left up to the audience to decipher.

This being a Villaronga film, much of the imagery is commanding and the performances are strong, but the structure is weak.

A curious casting choice is Australian-born composer Lisa Gerrard (whose credits include co-writing GLADIATOR with Hans Zimmer and scoring Michael Mann's THE INSIDER) as a strange woman who has a spiritual connection to the boy "savior".

Not recommended and not widely available.

Interesting watch and pretty enjoyable. Great camera work and story. The funny quirk is I found it funny the Director had The actor for David keep his mouth open almost the whole movie! Don't know if that was intentional, just how the actor is with his resting face, but it's noticeable, and often hilarious. Not once is his mouth closed except to form words.

There is mysticism, occult, great script and the acting is pretty good overall, with some flaws in maybe pacing. The locations and shots are great for a what seems like, a TV movie. Not sure if this was released in the movie theatre. Even the kid in Africa David meets has his mouth open too...weird.

I first read about this film because I am a fan of the group Dead Can Dance.

They did the soundtrack music for this film, but they never released it as a soundtrack on CD. I searched far and wide for this film, even when a review here said it was not available on VHS or any other format besides an original 35mm print. But, fortunately, that information was wrong. This film IS AVAILABLE on VHS in the United States. It was manufactured and distributed by Award Films International and was released in 1996. I just got one of the last copies available from an online video store I found. I also managed to track it down on a site called http://www.mircscripts.com for the reasonable price of $35 (I payed $60 for my copy). It is under the name "Moon Child" and not it's Spanish name. It is in Spanish with English subtitles and is in American NTSC format. The film is great, but the rare soundtrack alone is worth buying if you are a fan of Dead Can Dance. I know that there are probably other DCD fans trying to track this down, so I wanted to give them hope. You can find this VHS!! If it's not available at the aforementioned site, just go to any search engine and search for "Award Films International" and you should find a store that carries their entire catalog (including Moon Child).

Good Luck!

The protagonist of Augustin Villaronga's 1989 film EL NIÑO DE LA LUNA (Moonchild) is David (Enrique Saldana), a little orphan with, we're told, mysterious powers usually manifested as telekinesis. One day, David is adopted from the orphanage by the stern Ms. Victoria (Maribel Martin), only to find that his new home is a research facility where children like him are studied in an attempt to create some kind of supermen. Hearing that the uncivilized blacks of Africa have a prophecy about a white "child of the moon", the little misfit escapes, taking with him two other research specimens, Edgar (David Sust) and Georgina (Lisa Gerrard, best known as one half of Dead Can Dance).

This film has been unavailable for many years and is mainly forgotten. I imagine that most people searching for it are fans of Dead Can Dance wanting to see Lisa Gerrard's only acting credit and hear DCD's film score. Both are disappointments. Gerrard has no especial acting talent and she only succeeds in serving the story here because her character is written as borderline-retarded. Her dialogue is dubbed into Spanish too. For the most part, Dead Can Dance's soundtrack is generic synthesizer tones, and only at a brief few seconds do we hear material similar to that of their album of the same year THE SERPENT'S EGG.

The first half of EL NIÑO DE LA LUNA is basically shots of David in anguish alternating with foreboding images of the moon. The encounter of David with the black tribe is about as fair a depiction of Sub-Saharan Africa as Tintin in the Congo. This is a bad film, and one that provokes bafflement. We find a godawful script tied to lavish production values (especially set design and costumes). Who put up the money for this? And once it was inexplicably committed to film, who picked this as Spain's official entry for the Cannes Film Festival of that year? These are questions.

The other reviews, wide ranging as they are, give you broad view of nebulous movie. I have wide range of interests; this movie embraces none. This just a summary review. And to let you know Award Films International, of Hollywood address, has online availability of movie in DVD- R. Or, if site is down, call (818) 442 9111. AFI also sells as COA Movies on Amazon.com, presently at a better price. DVD has some still photos beyond the usual trailer, for extras. I wish I could return it, a first. Main character seems to run in place the entire movie, never really arriving. When he does reach new location, it moves so very slowly. This like a dream repeating, never satisfying. Children would not enjoy. If you have specific aim in watching, go for it. if you are taking a chance, I recommend declining. This unless you have inordinate curiosity. It's not a bad view, it's a near-OK indie, artsy, semi-intellectual, esoteric. These non-tangibles are compelling when combined with ample roots. Thousands of movies out there with more to offer. Tough to compare, try Duma meets Sixth Sense, à la mid-budget & indie Espagnol! English subtitles.

Beautifully shot film with one of the greatest soundtracks of the last ten years, composed by the mysterious Dead Can Dance. It's a pity they explicitly decided never to publish the soundtrack on CD. Also Lisa Gerrard from Dead Can Dance plays one of the main roles in the movie.

This is a magical story of an orphan confined in a claustrophobic, orwellian institution, somewhere in post-WWII Europe (it's never specified where). There they keep children from all over the world that show some form of telepathic skill to experiment with those powers. Our main character starts to discover, somehow, that he has a mission, that he's the carrier of a strange message…

Surrealistic, strange, "lynchian" at times, the movie flows at ease and keeps you on your toes from beginning to end. Stylish cinematography by Jaime Peracaula, solid screenplay and direction by the enigmatic Villaronga, and -once again- a soundtrack that would charm any fan of Dead Can Dance.

Highly recommendable if you have a chance to see it, specially since it was never published to video and there are no plans to ever release it in such format.

One of the strangest movies ever made in Spain.

12-year-old orphan David (Enrique Saldana) believes that he is a Moon Child, blessed with special powers. David is adopted by a secret organisation which takes him to their headquarters to test his psychic abilities; there, he meets Georgina (Lisa Gerrard) and Edgar (David Sust), two older subjects who have been chosen to mate with the aim of producing another Moon Child. When David learns that the couple are to be killed once the baby is born, he helps them to escape, the plan being to travel to Africa where David will fulfil his prophecy.

Directed by Agustí Villaronga, who gave us the shocking In A Glass Cage (1986), Moon Child is a mystical fantasy - not a horror film, despite being listed in my Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror - and it left me completely baffled. The cinematography is nice, with excellent camerawork, but Villaronga's script leaves much open to interpretation, and it's not easy to fathom what the director's intention was. As a result, I found myself quite bored, especially in the latter half of the film.

3.5/10, rounded down to 3 for Saldana's perpetual, gormless, open-mouthed expression - it's no surprise to me that this was his only film.

This is not what it sounds like. It is approximately a kids' mystical adventure movie, on the order of The Black Stallion, except for a nude sex scene, followed by what looks like a surgical procedure that I didn't understand. In structure this is a suspense movie, but the suspense is limited to escape and pursuit; the mystical or metaphysical element--the child's visions, the scientific-occult conspiracy to which he is delivered, and so forth--which one would expect to be churned into melodrama, as the same situation was in The Fury, is presented matter-of-factly, rather as magic realism.

Alastair Crowley's novel of the same title has a different plot, but may still have inspired the movie, because it also involves a scheme by an occult group to generate a child with magical powers, and the film has about it an air of the 20s, as perhaps of Rex Ingram (one of whose films concerned a fictional Crowley).

The story has flaws: e.g. it forgets that the main characters have "wild talents," and so their escape and pursuit is a matter of mundane running and hiding; for someone in the clutches of an authoritarian group with a recruited cadre of psychics, the child is able to sneak in and out very easily; characters' affections and determinations change without warning--all of which suit the kids' movie this (almost) is.

Fantastic movie, in all meanings of the term, where a child with occult powers is compelled to accomplish a mission which will bring him to the heart of Africa. This movie has many strengths, in particular the beauty of its cinematography with beautiful shots, which come back to your mind long after you've seen the film, very good acting from child actor E. Saldana, and a smart plot where rational explanations can be found to supernatural developments (a bit as H. James' Turn of the screw).

Firstly I'd advise anyone considering watching this title to see "In a glass cage" first...A darker film with difficult subject matter but it gives you a sense of where the directors interests,themes and talents lye.In short...a wonderful eye for composition, a very loose free association with respect to characters motivations and their interactions with each other(in both films its as much the inner fantasy or "true" personal vision of each protagonist that drives forward the plot) and a dark undercurrent of secret societies and cults(very much of the 30s 40s) seemingly able to turn the world and the immediate society they present into a dark twilight where danger and perversion seem ever present.Be clear though ... neither film is sensational or lurid...there is a moral compass at work here and thankfully so.In many ways there's much of the dark fairytale here but how many directors take such material and play it by the numbers until the poetic vision is lost...Villaronga does not...Finally if you like this you might consider "Born of fire" by Dehlavi and "Revenge" by Shinarbaev.