(Kinder der Landstrasse)

Content: 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.

Countries:

Germany,

Austria,

Switzerland

Genres:

History,

Drama

Runtime:

117 minutes

Year:

1992

Directors:

Urs Egger

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Production companies:

Panorama Films (CH),

Lichtblick Film,

Wega Film

Actors:

Jana Kessel

Theresa Kessel

Dr. Schoenefeld

Fräulein Roth

Heinrich Hottinger

Crews:

Director

Writer

Director of Photography

Editor

Art Direction