2024 | Directed by Cristina Comencini | Italy | Italian with English subtitles | 125 minutes
Set in the turbulent years following the Second World War, this film tells the moving story of Amerigo, a young boy from Naples, who is sent by his mother Antonietta to Northern Italy. The trip is sponsored as part of an initiative promoted by the Italian Communist Party, with the aim of offering underprivileged children from the South a chance at a better life. As Amerigo boards the train bound for an unfamiliar world, he also embarks on a journey through a divided country that will lead him to explore intimate questions of identity, memory, and belonging. With a compelling narrative and powerful performances, Il treno dei bambini delivers a deeply emotional message about resilience, the trials and joys of navigating family relations, and the bittersweet experience of growing up that touches all the right chords of nostalgia and fellow feeling.
Sponsored by the Department of Italian Studies and the 18th Yale Festival of New Italian Cinema.
