The Railroad Man

I have been studying Italian on Duolingo for a year now and this evening I noticed this little movie - il ferroviere - and I thought to myself: hey, I know this word, it means 'the railroad man'. Needless to say I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into but once I started I couldn't quit.

The story takes place in a small town in Italy after the WWII; the small town part, I figured, is most likely true considering how frequently in the movie everyone's keep bumping into each other and know one another pretty well. Andrea, il padre of the family, is a railroad worker who is as eager to drink wine as he is to make a fuss out of anything but his heart has good intentions that's why it is so easy to empathize with him. Although he's got a wife and three kids he couldn't help feeling lost at times, lonely, frustrated and angry and he pours it out into the family and gets nothing but abandonment and sadness in return.

The narrative flows like a river in the plain, calm and peaceful, and black and white cinematography only adds more colors to the palette of the picture. I just love Italian language for its expressive nature where even a small question like "how are you?" or a toast "to the grapes" sounds like poetry. The whole movie feels more like a play of sorts where every character has their identities, background stories of their own, they're real people so much so that you start to feel the connection with all of them almost immediately.

One year passes in the movie and it seems so in your mind also - you see how much the characters have grown, what they've gone through and what they learned. You may not be a good father, a perfect husband or even a kind person but life teaches everyone all those things with time and in the end you'll be the happiest person alive if you've learned your lessons well.