The Foster Boy

Switzerland, 1955. Max is an orphan, and the authorities contract him out to the Bösiger family's farm. To them he is not a child taken in but free labour. The family's son humiliates him at every opportunity. The one thing that is his own is his accordion. When the village's new teacher tries to stand up for him it only makes things worse. What keeps him going is his friendship with Berteli, who was also put to work on the farm; together they imagine Argentina, a place where even the hayforks are said to be silver. The film is about a real system applied to tens of thousands of children in Switzerland. The state issued a formal apology to them in 2013, and a compensation fund followed. Markus Imboden directs, with Max Hubacher as Max and Katja Riemann and Stefan Kurt in the cast. A hundred and three minutes.