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!
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