What happens when your wildest dreams come true? The four Lopez children, aged between 6 and 10, live with their parents on La Chureca, Central America’s largest garbage dump. They have never been to school and, unlike their parents, don’t fully grasp what they don’t have. The dump is the only world they have ever known. 

Then a philanthropist hears of the family’s plight and builds them a small house in the country with land they can farm. The kids can attend school for the first time and the family can escape the desolation and dead-end life of La Chureca. But what should be an amazing opportunity for everyone turns into a much more complex tale of love and loss, rescue and salvation. 

As the family adjusts to their new life, past demons come back to haunt them. Their mother, in particular, struggles to adapt. Relationships that, on the dump, seemed rock solid fray and tear. When things take an unexpected dark turn, their very future as a family appears in jeopardy. Shot over the course of seven years, ‘Clean Hands’ is a multi award-winning account of family, extreme poverty and the hope and innocence of children.