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Poster for Children of the Open Road

Children of the Open Road (1992)

★ 6.5/10 117 min History, Drama Germany, Austria, Switzerland German
Director: Urs Egger
Streaming: Not available

Description

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.

Top Cast

Jasmin Tabatabai
Jasmin Tabatabai Jana Kessel
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
Herbert Leiser
Herbert Leiser Paul Kessel
Mathias Gnädinger
Mathias Gnädinger Roger Kessel
Noemi Steuer Andrina Kessel

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