“16-year-old Marie Lechiste, raised without a mother by a drunkard father, is put in a juvenile home which she immediately, though unsuccessfully, tries to flee from. The sensitive Marie finds it hard to adapt to the coarse manners and brutal games amongst the children. Only gradually does she develop a sense for the similarly difficult fates of her fellow sufferers, who have long forgotten how to cry. She even falls in love for the first time, not with her self-appointed “protector” Tauri, but with the rough-mannered Robby ... “Smile at Last” takes a critical realist approach to raising attention to the responsibility over the fate of vulnerable children and adolescents.” (Berlinale Dokumentation 1987)