Children of the Open Road (Kinder der Landstrasse)

Overview

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.

Key Crew

Top Cast

Jasmin Tabatabai

Jana Kessel

Andrea Eckert

Theresa Kessel

Hans Peter Korff

Dr. Schoenefeld

Nina Petri

Fräulein Roth

Wolf-Dietrich Berg

Heinrich Hottinger

Herbert Leiser

Paul Kessel

Mathias Gnädinger

Roger Kessel

Noemi Steuer

Andrina Kessel

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