Children of the Open Road

The story

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.

Cast & crew

Jasmin TabatabaiJana Kessel

Andrea EckertTheresa Kessel

Hans Peter KorffDr. Schoenefeld

Nina PetriFräulein Roth

Wolf-Dietrich BergHeinrich Hottinger

Herbert LeiserPaul Kessel

Mathias GnädingerRoger Kessel

Noemi Steuer

Noemi SteuerAndrina Kessel

Johanna Karl-Lory

Johanna Karl-LoryWahrsagerin