Where were shot the most iconic scenes of The Children’s Train, the new movie by Cristina Comencini? And how was it possible to meticulously recreate one of the most important stories of Italian charity? Stefano Accorsi, Serena Rossi, and Barbara Ronchi, the actors who star in the movie, based on Viola Ardone’s novel, tell us all about it. The Children’s Train is now available only on Netflix.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00This film tells one of the most beautiful pages of solidarity in our history.
00:10The story of Naples, the story of Italy, a little piece of Italy,
00:15but it's a story that happened, really, in the Second World War,
00:19so it's something that, even if I don't cry, I get goosebumps,
00:23so I'm just about to cry.
00:26When they offered me this film, I was very happy and curious to read the story.
00:30I read it all in one breath and I was really impressed.
00:34It's the story of Amerigo. Amerigo is one of these children,
00:37and it's a true story that I didn't know and that left me completely speechless.
00:44Since it started, since we met Serena, Cristina,
00:49the whole initial moment of preparation,
00:52I felt a great closeness to all of us for this story,
00:59so beautiful, so important.
01:02First you look at the jeep, at the people, and then you laugh at your mother who is desperate.
01:08It's a story that I could give something to, because there are these two mothers,
01:12there is motherhood, which is something that I have investigated a lot,
01:15both in films and in books,
01:17and there was also the historical era, very interesting,
01:20and there is something that interests me a lot,
01:22which is the private relationship between families,
01:26also in an interesting era such as the post-war period.
01:32It was a journey that touched me a lot.
01:37It was intense, it was precious for my family, for me,
01:43because my grandmother, my mother's mother, was one of the girls on the train.
01:47Did you have a good time there?
01:48I had a great time.
01:50Did you want to go back or stay there?
01:51I didn't want to go back.
01:53I know, that's all.
01:54In fact, he stays in Milan.
01:56In fact, my mother said no, because they wanted me to stay there,
02:00but my mother said no.
02:03They put all the children on the train.
02:05They put all the children on the train.
02:07The children are not worth anything.
02:10But they go to America to work hard.
02:12You don't understand anything.
02:13Look here, they are not Americans, look here, they are Russians.
02:16Otrello, I'm leaving tomorrow.
02:18You are very good.
02:20What I ask you is to do this real thing.
02:24This thing happened in history, you know it's true.
02:28It tells the story of the Italy of the Constitution,
02:31that is, the Italy that was made in peace.
02:34These two years, two and a half years,
02:36are those in which this miracle happened,
02:38that is, in which the children of the South and also of poor Lazio
02:42were brought to the North.
02:44Speranza, page 5.
02:46There was a lot of misery,
02:48and the situation was practically unsustainable for many families.
02:51So the Communist Party organized these expeditions of children
02:56and many families were forced to send their children to the North
03:01to give them a chance of a future.
03:03Brothers and sisters.
03:04Luigi is dead.
03:06He was three years old.
03:08In a month, he took the plasma away.
03:11The plasma was ready.
03:13I don't want to make the same film.
03:15I don't want people to stop.
03:23The idea that Italy is one
03:25and that the children who need it are hosted.
03:28This is unthinkable today, I think.
03:30We see that this host is lost.
03:32When the first ones enter the field and go to look for their parents,
03:38you do the same thing, the same movements, the same parents.
03:42There's a scene where Maddalena,
03:45together with another officer, takes us to the train.
03:48But the bakery says they're eating again,
03:51so all the children go to their parents.
03:59It's a very big film.
04:01It's full of children, trains, masses,
04:04all different situations,
04:06when the cinema is at the same time
04:09a great satisfaction, but also a great effort,
04:12because it's a film in continuous motion.
04:15The participation of Netflix was also important,
04:18because it loved this novel
04:21and also gave us, the production, the opportunity to make it.
04:27And so, in a way, as often happens in cinema,
04:30fortunately, sometimes,
04:32it's a bit of a miracle to be able to make such a difficult film
04:35and give a sense of a great past, but also a great present.
04:46It's also a very current story,
04:48because, as we see every day on screen,
04:51the theme of welcome is always on the pages of the newspapers,
04:55always on everyone's lips,
04:57because people are trying to get to places
04:59where they can make their dreams come true,
05:01where they have their America, like Little America.
05:04I wanted to tell an Italy
05:06capable, with those few means,
05:08of setting up a pharaonic project,
05:10because 10,000 children left,
05:13only from Naples,
05:15and 70,000 from all regions of Italy.
05:17So, a story that involved many families from the South
05:20and many families from the North,
05:22of women who helped each other.
05:24The project was about the Italian Women's Union,
05:26so women from the South and the North who helped each other
05:29and who gave birth to a fantastic utopia,
05:32which was to help each other,
05:35for the love of a common interest, their children.
05:46Berna is a woman who went to war,
05:48who fought.
05:50She is a woman who cannot imagine a future for her
05:53where there is the horizon of motherhood.
05:55When she meets Meriduo,
05:57she is not able to have anything to do with a child,
06:00but at the same time she discovers care,
06:03she discovers a sense of protection,
06:06which is exactly what mothers do.
06:17Antonietta is a destroyed woman,
06:20devastated by war,
06:23by a family life,
06:25sentimental,
06:27extremely dramatic.
06:29She is poor and miserable,
06:31miserable, as Cristina says.
06:33So, a woman who has no more dreams,
06:35who has no more hopes,
06:37hardened by life
06:39and by a city that is so powerful,
06:42but that was crumbled in every way.
06:45It was the most bombed city in Europe
06:47during the Second World War in Naples.
06:49So, those rubbles that she had around her,
06:52she had them also in her heart.
06:54Both of them love this child in different ways,
06:57and one of the two also loses it.
06:59But they love them because they have their story,
07:02because they are women in a different way.
07:05This is another thing,
07:07which on the one hand is linked to the historical moment,
07:10but on the other hand it recalls us today,
07:12to all that idealization of mothers,
07:14who instead are, as always, normal women.
07:28Come on!
07:30Are you angry?
07:32When did you leave?
07:34Enough!
07:36America is a character,
07:38I tell you, difficult to bring on stage.
07:40At 8 years old, she was practically,
07:42she detached herself from her natural mother
07:44and went to live in a trustworthy family.
07:46She practically has a life divided in two.
07:48There is a before and there is a after.
07:50And the complex thing is that
07:52these two lives unite,
07:54meet again, see each other again.
07:56And we discover it with him.
07:58So he is a character who has scenes
08:00that are often very intense and decisive.
08:03They are those crucial moments of life.
08:06Then you look here,
08:08then you go to the pot,
08:10which is next to me,
08:12and then here.
08:14Then you go to the room.
08:16Ok?
08:18Do you want to turn it right away?
08:20Yes.
08:22Come on!
08:26You always think that from wars
08:28you heal quickly.
08:30Instead, then you understand,
08:32thinking about the wars that have been,
08:34those of today,
08:36that it takes a lot of time
08:38to rebuild private relationships,
08:40to rebuild, let's say,
08:42a normality, a possibility of loving.
08:44So tired, Mary?
08:46Was the trip long?
08:48Very long, Mom!
08:50I love you!
08:52I love you!
08:54I love you!
08:56I love you!
08:58I love you!
09:00I love you!
09:02I love you!
09:04I love you!
09:06I love you!
09:08I love you!
09:10I love you!
09:12I love you!
09:14I love you!
09:16I love you!
09:18I love you!
09:20I love you!
09:22I love you!
09:24I love you!
09:26I love you!
09:28I love you!
09:30I love you!
09:32I love you!
09:34I love you!
09:36I love you!
09:38I love you!
09:40I love you!
09:42I love you!
09:44I love you!