The Children’s Train (2024) is an Italian film based on the eponymous novel by Viola Ardone.

In 1946, Antonietta, an impoverished single mother, arranges for her only child, her son Amerigo, to travel from Naples to northern Italy to live with a host family in Modena.

This was part of the ‘trains of happiness’ initiative organized by the Italian Communist Part to support poor southern families after WWII.

Amerigo reluctantly joins the ‘trains of happiness’. After he returns home, Amerigo decides he is better off with Derna in Modena and he takes the train back to her.