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Children of the Open Road

Children of the Open Road

Jan 01, 1992 1h 57m
5
1 votes

Synopsis

In 1939, after barely escaping the Nazis, a Gypsy family returns to Switzerland only to be torn apart by racial persecution in the benign guise of children's welfare. This fictionalized story of Jana, an eight-year-old Gypsy girl snatched from her parents and consigned to a life of orphanages and bleak foster homes, is based on a little-known chapter of Swiss history: From 1926 to 1972, the state-supported Pro Juventute, a children's aid foundation, forcibly removed some 700 Gypsy children from their families, in order to sever the ties with their culture and assimilate them to a "better way of life." The underlying aim was to preempt a new generation's caravans from following their nomadic traditions along Switzerland's country lanes.

Title Children of the Open Road
Companies Panorama Films (CH), Lichtblick Film, Wega Film
Countries Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Keywords
Andrea Eckert

Andrea Eckert

Theresa Kessel
Hans-Peter Korff

Hans-Peter Korff

Dr. Schoenefeld
Nina Petri

Nina Petri

Fräulein Roth
Wolf-Dietrich Berg

Wolf-Dietrich Berg

Heinrich Hottinger
Noemi Steuer

Noemi Steuer

Andrina Kessel

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