The Stolen Children (1992) review

Carabiniere Antonio (Enrico Lo Verso) is given the assignment of escorting eleven-year-old Rosetta (Valentina Scalici) and her asthmatic brother Luciano (Giuseppe Ieracitano) to an orphanage after their mother is arrested for forcing Rosetta into prostitution, but the institution won't take in the children, so then he has to go on a roundabout way to find them a place to live, stopping by at his sister's home (in Calabria) and then to the beach.  The title in Italian (Il ladro di bambini) is a nod to the nation's Neorealist period and it has the same earthy atmosphere and grittiness - the two kids are pitiable and Lo Verso's more of a big brother-type than a father figure - but I have nagging concerns about the details of the story: is there no such thing as Child Protective Services?  Why would you ever ask a paramilitary member to do something a social worker could do?  What kind of editor would, in his or her right mind, allow an underaged rape victim's face on the cover of a magazine?  And how dysfunctional are the Carabinieri that they'd accuse one of their own of being a kidnapper and threatening to court-marshal him instead of just giving him a slap on the wrist?  But then again, if that happened, the ending wouldn't be quite as melancholic....