The Train to Moscow: A Journey to Utopia

The end of an era seen through the eyes of a young Italian barber who set out for Moscow with a group of like-minded friends in 1957. Their hometown Alfonsine, like the majority of communities in Italy's war-torn Emilia-Romagna region, is in the hands of "Red" local government by the late 1950s. Sauro Ravaglia and his friends dream of a world of peace, brotherhood and equality; in their mind, the Soviet Union has it all. Moscow is hosting the World Festival of Youth and Students, and so, filled with enthusiasm and joy, the young comrades start out on their great journey in search of the model society they yearn to be a part of. What happens when so many young people set off to film this utopia on their amateur cameras and come face to face with reality? The film is chiefly created from archive footage shot in 1957 on Super 8. Excerpts of period music and radio broadcasts introduce a special magic to a historical episode that robbed the young idealists of their illusions, but not their memories. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)