Napoli and Modena unite in remembering the history of the Trains of Happiness with a screening-event of “The Children's Train”, the film by Cristina Comencini, inspired by the novel of the same name by Ardone.
The appointment is set for tomorrow at 19: 00, At the reopening of the Metropolitan Cinema in Naples, which is back in business with the new management of Cinema Circuit. The initiative, promoted by Film Commission Regione Campania e Emilia-Romagna Film Commission, will ideally connect the Metropolitan Cinema Arena Modena thanks to a simultaneous screening with interventions and testimonies.
The event takes on a symbolic value, celebrating the rebirth of a historic Neapolitan theater (which in 1948 was the largest cinema in Italy with 3.000 seats, later becoming a multiplex and closed last January) and recalling a significant chapter in post-war Italian history.
Set between Campania and Emilia-Romagna, The Children's Train – an exclusive Netflix produced by Palomar and presented at the Rome Film Fest – tells the story of a child from the South sent to the North to escape poverty and find a new opportunity in life.
“A journey through poverty and prejudice, but above all a story of solidarity and desire for rebirth of post-war Italy, seen through the eyes of a child” – we read in the production notes. A Napoli, in the hall Metropolitan, the writer will be present Ardone, the actress Antonia Truppo, the small Christian Cervone, Lucia Valenzi (writer and President of the Valenzi Foundation), Andrea Occhipinti (for Circuito Cinema) and the director of the FCRC Maurice Gemma. Modena, instead, the director Cristina Comencini will be accompanied by Remo Bagnoli e Maura Bartoli, children of two of the many families from Modena who, after the war, welcomed children from the South, who arrived with those who history has renamed The Trains of Happiness.
The Modena event is promoted by Institute for the History of the Resistance and Contemporary Society, Women's documentation centre, UDI, Villa Emma Foundation, Fossoli Foundation, Modena Foundation 2007, and the Municipality of Modena – Department of Culture, with the collaboration of Committee for the history and memories of the twentieth century of the Municipality of Modena and Provincial Committee for Modena Celebrations, supported by Abitcoop e Estense Cooperative League. The entrance to the Metropolitan of Naples is free, with access allowed up to exhaustion of seats for the non-reserved public.
Article published on March 19, 2025 - 16pm
Tomorrow's event at the Cinema Metropolitan seems interesting, but I don't really understand the connection between Naples and Modena. Will there be many people going? I hope it's a good film to watch with friends.