Since the 1970s, film theory has consistently focused on the representation of women and men in cinema. Research about adult exhibition has not been matched, until recently, by a similar concern with the representation of children and adolescents on the silver screen. In this presentation, I touch on two types of contemporary Argentine and Brazilian films in which young characters move the narrative development. I argue that while children are frequently represented as victims and witnesses of their countries' political violence, few films pay attention to the portrayal of their subjectivity.