A little-known or forgotten story of Italy comes back to life on Netflix. The children’s trainthe new cinematographic work by director and screenwriter Cristina Comencini, is an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Viola Ardone (published in 2019). In images, it reconstructs the history of the “happiness trains”, these convoys which, between 1945 and 1947, allowed more than 70,000 Italian children from the South to be welcomed into families in the Center and North of Italy. Italy, thus surviving hunger and poverty.
The children’s traina story of deep love, generosity and pain
The children’s train tells a poignant, particularly moving story. We are in the aftermath of the war, in 1946. Amerigo, the protagonist of the film, aged seven, never left Naples, nor his mother Antonietta. His mother decides to offer him the opportunity for a better life. His world, made of streets and poverty, is about to change. The train of happiness awaits him… It will take him to the North, to Emilia-Romagna, where a young woman, Derna, will take him in and take care of him, guaranteeing him school, food, health.
Along with thousands of other children from the South, Amerigo will cross the entire peninsula for a better roof in the North.
This solidarity enterprise – which continued until 1952 – was organized by the Union of Italian Women (Udi) and the Italian Communist Party, united in the desire to find, in the least affected areas, ready families to welcome children for a few months or even a school year.
The reception was therefore temporary and without constraint: parents freely decided whether or not to offer this opportunity to their children. In the countryside of Emilia-Romagna (as in the film), in Tuscany, in Marche and even in Liguria, these host families were far from being rich. Imbued with generosity, these couples of peasants and workers, already parents of large families, had no trouble adding a place at the table, and giving affection.
Amerigo shows us an Italy recovering from the war. He also tells us the moving story of a separation.
With Derna, Amerigo becomes aware of a reality which leads him to make a painful choice which will change his life forever. It will take him many years to discover the truth: those who love you do not hold you back, but let you go.
Related News :