Il treno dei bambini: Netflix film recounts Italy's postwar solidarity trains

Cristina Comencini's film 'Il treno dei bambini', based on Viola Ardone's novel, is now streaming on Netflix. It reconstructs the 'trains of happiness' that between 1945 and 1947 transported over 70,000 impoverished children from Southern Italy to families in Central and Northern Italy, saving them from hunger and poverty. The story follows eight-year-old Amerigo from Naples, who is sent to Emilia Romagna where he is welcomed by Derna, creating a mother-son bond that is eventually interrupted. The film features Serena Rossi as Antonietta and Barbara Ronchi as Derna, with music by Nicola Piovani. The initiative was organized by the Unione Donne Italiane. Comencini describes the film as a personal story within a larger history, highlighting a period when a united Italy seemed possible. Ardone notes the irony that this solidarity story was forgotten, contrasting past trains of solidarity with today's ships of separation.