FRG 1970 | Director: Edith Marcello (former Schmidt) | Editorial Staff: Valentin Senger | Assistance: Günther Boege | Camera: Bernhard Weber | Editor: Gisela Grafe | Sound: Hermann Möller | Production: Hessischer Rundfunk (hr) | b/w | digital | 42 min | german OV | hr

While BILLIGE HÄNDE dealt marginally with the precarious situation of migrant workers' children, Edith Marcello dedicated an entire film to this population group one year later. "The Italian school system is faulty, the German school system is faulty [...]; Because capitalist society [...] needs people to exploit, in this system it is appropriate that some children do not go far in school. We have spoken with children who go to the factories at age 13," explains Don Piero Guerra, a socially committed priest in Frankfurt's Italian community.

Though some of the film's protagonists and images will be recognisable to the viewer, this time its analytical approach is even broader. The thesis: since industry requires unskilled labourers in 1970, the West German school system has no interest in providing these children with an appropriate education or opportunities for advancement. Language difficulties, racist experiences, and, in the case of Greek children, even the Greek military dictatorship's access to the curriculum make it difficult for them to articulate their demands; and yet, the children and young people manage to have their say. (Patrick Kokoszynski, 2023)