The Children's Train (Il treno dei bambini) is an Italian film co-written and directed by Cristina Comencini, based on the novel of the same name by Viola Ardone. It premiered at the 19th Rome Film Festival on 20 October 2024 and was released on Netflix on 4 December 2024.
In 1946, a Neapolitan boy travels to northern Italy to live with a host family as part of the treni della felicità (trains of happiness) initiative. It was part of a movement to transport poor southern Italian children to northern families who could support them in the years after World War II.
The real-life events inspiring the movie began once the Italian Communist Party took control of Italy following the nation’s collapse in World War II. Italy’s military and economic failures brought the nation to an all-time low as the war ended in their unconditional surrender, with many impoverished families dying from starvation or exposure to the elements. In order to curtail some of these unnecessary deaths and reform their nation, the Communist Party was forced to take extreme measures, including rounding up impoverished children in Italy’s poorest regions and shipping them North to be sponsored by wealthier families via train.
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