Children of the Open Road (Kinder der Landstrasse) 32 years old

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.

Credits

Nina Petri as Fräulein Roth

Andrea Eckert as Theresa Kessel

Herbert Leiser as Paul Kessel

Mathias Gnädinger as Roger Kessel

Wolf-Dietrich Berg as Heinrich Hottinger

Jasmin Tabatabai as Jana Kessel

Children of the Open Road Cast

Name	Character
Nina Petri She was 29, now 61 years old	as Fräulein Roth
Andrea Eckert She was 33, now 66 years old	as Theresa Kessel
Herbert Leiser He was 51, now 83 years old	as Paul Kessel
Mathias Gnädinger He was 51, 74 years old when he died	as Roger Kessel
Wolf-Dietrich Berg He was 48, 59 years old when he died	as Heinrich Hottinger
Jasmin Tabatabai She was 25, now 57 years old	as Jana Kessel
Hans-Peter Korff He was 49, now 82 years old	as Dr. Schoenefeld
Johanna Karl-Lory She was 90, 95 years old when she died	as Wahrsagerin

Children of the Open Road Crew

Name	Department
Urs Egger as Director. He was 37 (65) years old when He died	Directing

Children of the Open Road (32 years)

Release day: Wednesday, January 01, 1992
Runtime: 117 minutes