To xypolyto tagma

May 28 1954 Approved 1h 50m
Drama, War

The story of a besieged country in wartime and the effect of such on the children. Told in flashback by a young man after the war, he tells how he and his orphaned sister can barely subsist and he has become a petty thief. He comes across a group of boys, the "Barefoot Batallion", who steal food from the Germans and distribute it to the needy and destitute of the city. The boys take pity on the brother and sister and let the two join them. In addition to their work of stealing food and provisions, they also hide and eventually smuggle an American aviator out of the country

Plot

In a poverty-stricken post-World-War-II Thessaloniki that is struggling to get back on its feet, a young man, Dimitris, catches in the act of stealing a wallet the homeless street urchin, Stavros. Intent on lending the boy a helping hand--and almost ten years after the end of the war--Dimitris recounts the powerful and heart-warming story of the nearly one hundred sixty orphans who were expelled from the city's orphanage by the Nazis, during the German occupation of Greece. They were the reputed "Barefoot Battalion", a proud and close-knit pack of disciplined orphaned boys, who took their lives into their own hands, every time they stripped a German truck of its food and medicine, to aid the Resistance and the multitudes of the town's impoverished people. To them, stealing was an art, and a grave necessity; nevertheless, now that the war is finally over, what is Stavros' excuse?

Written by

Nikos Katsiotis, Gregg G. Tallas

Directed by

Gregg G. Tallas

Cast

Maria Kosti, Nikos Fermas, Vasileios Fragedakis

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

Greece, United States of America

Production Companies

Peter Boudoures Film Company

Languages

Deutsch, English

Awards

N/A

Scores
# of Votes
247
Average Rating
7.7 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA