Die schwarzen Brüder

The Black Brothers

Switzerland, 19th century. In a remote mountain village, Giorgio, 14, leads a harsh but happy life –until the day his mother has a serious accident. The only way his father can pay the doctor is ... by selling Giorgio. 40 francs is what Giorgio’s father gets from the "Man with the Scar", who resells the boys he buys in Switzerland to prosperous chimney-sweep agents in Milan. There, Giorgio and his friend Alfredo become "spazzacamini", forced to work in narrow, soot-filled chimneys. For the boys, it's an exciting adventure: the big city, the secret crypt beneath a church, the pretty, but gravely ill Angeletta, the master’s daughter... Giorgio is in luck, for he is treated well by his master Battista, even though Battista's wife and son enjoy tormenting him. But Alfredo is driven to his physical limits. To ward off attacks by street gangs like the "Wolves", Alfredo founds the "Black Brothers" gang and makes Giorgio their first blood brother. Enjoying the support of his new friends, Giorgio devises a clever scheme to put the Wolves in their places. Then Alfredo dies of lung poisoning. Surprisingly, the Wolves accept Giorgio's proposal to band together with the Black Brothers and make the Man with the Scar pay for selling the boys into captivity... It is the beginning of a new, daring – and dangerous – adventure.

Source: German Films Service & Marketing GmbH