A train travels across Italy toward Rome. On board is a professor who daydreams a conversation with a love that never was, a family of Albanian refugees who switch trains and steal a ticket, three brash Scottish soccer fans en route to a match, and a complaining widow traveling to a memorial service for her late husband who's accompanied by a community-service volunteer who's assisting her. Interactions among these Europeans turn on class and nationalism, courtesy and rudeness, and opportunities for kindness.
Direction
Three auteurs, one seamless voice — Kiarostami's touch is unmistakable.
Writing
Dialogue that stings like real strangers trapped together.
Acting
Martin Compston's Scottish lads are devastatingly tender goofballs.
Director
Abbas Kiarostami
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kiarostami conceived the project after being trapped on a train with annoying fellow passengers.
Loach's segment subtly references his own 'My Name Is Joe' — the football match is Celtic vs. a team implied to be Rangers, layering sectarian tension beneath banter.
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