A young carabiniere is asked to transport two young children from the north of Italy to the south--the opposite of the usual migration of souls in that land. The reason is that the eleven-year-old girl and her brother are left without parents and kicked out of their "institution" because the girl was sold as a prostitute by her mother for two years. The man who goes with them is the usual lonely adult stuck on a road trip with children he doesn't understand, but this is no "Are We There Yet?" because the children are deeply damaged and searching for family, and the man has to deal with his own nomadism.
The road is, in fact, hardly ever far from view/sound. It intercuts through the frame, the story, and even the sound. While the three characters travel, the instability of modern (or post-modern) Italy is shown in some pretty stunning displays of blocking by the director. Meanwhile, society, capitalism, and Catholicism are deeply criticized, and the characters' attempts to build and found a family are met with equal resistance from institution and law, and the pure prejudice of others. The title'd have you believe that the carabiniere stole the children, but the children were stolen from their childhood long before the movie starts. All that's left for them is each other, and the task of this drama is to get them to realize that at the sacrifice of a young man who was ill-prepared to handle them but ends up giving them a great gift of kindness.
--PolarisDiB
The road is, in fact, hardly ever far from view/sound. It intercuts through the frame, the story, and even the sound. While the three characters travel, the instability of modern (or post-modern) Italy is shown in some pretty stunning displays of blocking by the director. Meanwhile, society, capitalism, and Catholicism are deeply criticized, and the characters' attempts to build and found a family are met with equal resistance from institution and law, and the pure prejudice of others. The title'd have you believe that the carabiniere stole the children, but the children were stolen from their childhood long before the movie starts. All that's left for them is each other, and the task of this drama is to get them to realize that at the sacrifice of a young man who was ill-prepared to handle them but ends up giving them a great gift of kindness.
--PolarisDiB