Two carabinieri, the rookie Antonio and an older man named Grignani are assigned the thankless task of escorting the children there by train.

When they arrive at the orphanage, the priest in charge tells Antonio that the children cannot stay because Rosetta's medical record is missing.

Rather than contact his superiors for further instructions and expose his partner's misconduct, Antonio naively decides to take matters into his own hands and bring the children to another institute in their native Sicily.

After a long train and coach journey, the trio arrive unannounced at Antonio's sister's home in Calabria, which doubles as a restaurant.

Antonio, who has acquired an old Fiat 128, agrees to remove Rosetta from the place immediately, and drives them to the ferry terminal at the Strait of Messina.

Having nearly reached their final destination, Antonio pulls over to an abandoned block where all three of them fall asleep in the car.

The children wake up at early dawn, and walk off to the side of the road, where they sit together and talk about their future in the orphanage.

[3] Influenced by the Italian neorealist cinematic tradition, Amelio cast non-actors for the majority of the roles, including the two child leads.

[4] The Italian title Il ladro di bambini literally translates as "The child thief", an ironic reference to the fact that in taking the children on an unauthorised journey, Antonio has technically kidnapped them.

[7] Roger Ebert gave it 4 stars out of 4, saying "Here is a movie with the spontaneity of life; watching it is like living it.

"[8] In the 2012 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films of all time, Cineaste's Gary Crowdus included Il ladro di bambini in his top 10 list.