Watch out, spoilers!
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Italian director Gianni Amelio is often compared with neorealists, really something in common with this trend in Italian cinema, he shoots his not so outstanding, but often touching films in the same style that they shot, or maybe it’s just the handwriting inherent in Italians? Il ladro di bambini (1992) was made in this spirit.
A mother living with two children, as it turns out, has been forcing her daughter Rosetta to engage in prostitution for two years, and she is now only 11 years old, her son Luciano is 9, his mother escorts him out of the house when a client comes. But soon the police arrive, the mother and the client are arrested, the children are taken away, and then the two Carabinieri must take them from Milan to Civitavecchia to the orphanage, but one of the Carabinieri decides to take the trip to visit his friend in Bologna, taking the mission on the shoulders of a young Carabinieri Antonio (Enrico Lo Verso). The orphanage refuses to accept the children (most likely because of the girl with her history) and is sent to another shelter in Sicily, where, in principle, they were born. If at first the relationship between the children and Antonio strained, then gradually they become better, they are imbued even with sympathy for each other to make the children pleasant, Antonio is in no hurry and the journey is delayed for 3 days. But it does not end on an optimistic note - after Antonio caught a robber on the street and took him to the station, there he learns that his protracted actions can be qualified as kidnapping children. We won't know how it ends, but let's hope it settles down, even though the end is open.
The role of Antonio was initially intended for Antonio Banderas, among the contenders was Massimo Troisi, but he was not released by the producer, in the end the role was played by Enrico Lo Verso (he had to duplicate Banderas), whom the director then shot in several of his films, he played well and this role.
The story, as we see, everyday, although it is not simple for the characters, the film is actually not bad.