The Barefoot Battalion

In a poverty-stricken post-World War II Thessaloniki that's struggling to get back on its feet, a young man, Dimitris, catches Stavros, a street urchin, in the act of stealing a wallet. Almost ten years after the end of the war, Dimitris, intent on lending the boy a helping hand, recounts the powerful and heart-warming story of the nearly one hundred sixty orphans who were expelled from the city's orphanage by the Germans during the German occupation of Greece. They were the reputed Barefoot Battalion, a proud and close-knit pack of disciplined orphans. The orphaned boys took their lives into their own hands every time they stripped a German truck of its food and medicine to aid the Resistance and the multitudes of impoverished people of the town. To them, stealing was an art and a grave necessity. Nevertheless, now that the war is finally over, what is Stavros' excuse?