Children of the Open Road
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.
Featured Crew
| Urs Egger | Director |
| Sabina Haag | Costume Design |
| Thomas Szabolcs | Sound |
| Johannes Bösiger | Producer |
| Lukas Strebel | Director of Photography |
| Urs Egger | Producer |
| Kathrin Brunner | Art Direction |
| Peter Spoerri | Producer |
| Johannes Bösiger | Writer |
| Barbara Hennings | Editor |
