From the early 40s to the early 80s, Swiss children and teenagers used to be coercively left to live with farmers, or put in an institute. Of course, the kids didn’t have a say in the decision. A huge number of children faced this unwanted fate – mostly the offspring of poor families, illegitimate children, children of dubious origin, and youths that were labelled as turbulent, stubborn or riotous. The victims of such inflicted placements were sent to work, forced to slave in the farms, committed to psychiatric institutes, jailed, abused, adopted coactively, and even sterilised without them knowing.

“For a shrivelled apple slice” tells the story of one of these children – Lidia Scettrini. A fictional character with a fictional name, created in order to unveil what had been not fictional at all for many actual children.

After the divorce of her parents, Lidia is left to live with her mother in the small town of Cavaione, in eastern Switzerland. One day, exasperated by the continuous mocking and bullying, she decides to steal some snacks from her classmate Piero. Piero’s parents will accuse Lidia of robbery; because of this, and because of the destitution Lidia and her mother live in, the little girl will be sent to stay in a religious institute. Abused and mistreated by the nuns, Lidia is then left in the cares of a farmer. In this new “home” she will befriend Anne, the farmer’s wife; ill and confined to bed, the lady will be the only loving presence in Lidia’s life. By the time Anne dies, Lidia is a nineteen-year-old woman, about to come of age and ready to leave behind the horror of her past and move back to Cavaione. Coming back to her birthplace, Lidia doesn’t feel like she belongs there anymore: nonetheless, she will battle against the trauma she had to suffer and grow, at long last, into something new.
In 2018 the Swiss Confederation established a solidarity contribution in favour of the victims of the so-called “Compulsory Social Measures and Placements”. In the act of filling out the application form, Lidia will re-evoke the thought of everything that has been stolen from her, finding in her heart the strength that is needed to fully seize the day.