Die Schwarzen Brüder
Xavier Koller, 2012Thirteen-year-old Giorgio lives in the mountain village of Sognono in the Ticino region of Switzerland. His family is poor but happy. That changes abruptly when his mother becomes seriously ill after a viper's bite and his father does not know how to pay the doctor’s bills. In a complete state of desperation, he sells Giorgio to the Man with the Scar, who has only one goal: turning the small boy into enormous profit. To that end, he is determined to put Giorgio to work as a chimney sweep boy in Milan. But Giorgio is not alone in this. On the dangerous journey to Milan, he makes the acquaintance of young Alfredo, who shares the same fate and who, with his many crusader adventure stories, attempts to bolster their courage to bear their misery in dangerous foreign territory. The two boys become blood brothers.