The Land Beyond the Sunset (1912)

Synopsis: A young boy works as a newspaper seller and lives with his alcoholic grandmother, who doesn't treat him kindly. One day he receives an invitation for a charity picnic and there one of the ladies tells the kids a fairy tale.
Appraisal: A remarkably well done if a little too unhealthily morbid tale of early last century's infant misery. It's the third film I see in less than a week that uses the metaphor in which an unfortunate child's death is depicted as his (her) removal to a magical or supernatural world. The other two are The Little Match Seller, like this one an outcry for better socioeconomical conditions for children, and El laberinto del fauno, which is simply a sadistic concoction with no redeeming social value.