Tired and disillusioned after 40 years of teaching primary school in the urban jungle of Rome, Michele Cortese (Antonio Albanese) has the chance for a new life when he manages to get himself assigned to the school named for Cesidio Gentile, a poet and shepherd from Abruzzo known as Jurico: the school has a single class of children aged from 7 to 10 and is located in the fictitious village of Rupe in the heart of the National Park of Abruzzo.
Thanks to the help of the deputy head teacher Agnese (Virginia Raffaele) and the children, he is able to overcome his city habits and adapt to life in a small snow-covered mountain village where being the teacher means going beyond the dry communication of academic subjects and becoming an integral part of the community, inevitably involved in every aspect of his pupils’ lives and that of their families.
Director Riccardo Milani, used a range of villages in Marsica, a mountainous area in inner Abruzzo, to create Rupe and its surroundings. Locations included the small villages of Opi and Pescasseroli, Villetta Barrea and lake Barrea, Sperone, Civitella Alfedena, Gioia dei Marsi.
The key theme of Un mondo a parte is the depopulation of mountain villages: just when Michele seems to have found his footing and everything is going perfectly, they hear that the school will be closed for a lack of pupils and merged with that of the imaginary village of Castelromito, a tourism centre in Upper Sangro. The teachers first attempt to change the minds of the officials in L’Aquila, capital of Abruzzo: covered with artificial snow, locations included corso Vittorio Emanuele, piazza Duomo, Palazzo Betti in via Patini (interiors) and the council offices in via Avezzano. This marks the start of a race against time that will bring the community together to prevent the closure of the school, effectively a death knell for Rupe.
Tired and disillusioned after 40 years of teaching primary school in the urban jungle of Rome, Michele Cortese (Antonio Albanese) has the chance for a new life when he manages to get himself assigned to the school named for Cesidio Gentile, a poet and shepherd from Abruzzo known as Jurico: the school has a single class of children aged from 7 to 10 and is located in the fictitious village of Rupe in the heart of the National Park of Abruzzo.
Thanks to the help of the deputy head teacher Agnese (Virginia Raffaele) and the children, he is able to overcome his city habits and adapt to life in a small snow-covered mountain village where being the teacher means going beyond the dry communication of academic subjects and becoming an integral part of the community, inevitably involved in every aspect of his pupils’ lives and that of their families.
Director Riccardo Milani, used a range of villages in Marsica, a mountainous area in inner Abruzzo, to create Rupe and its surroundings. Locations included the small villages of Opi and Pescasseroli, Villetta Barrea and lake Barrea, Sperone, Civitella Alfedena, Gioia dei Marsi.
The key theme of Un mondo a parte is the depopulation of mountain villages: just when Michele seems to have found his footing and everything is going perfectly, they hear that the school will be closed for a lack of pupils and merged with that of the imaginary village of Castelromito, a tourism centre in Upper Sangro. The teachers first attempt to change the minds of the officials in L’Aquila, capital of Abruzzo: covered with artificial snow, locations included corso Vittorio Emanuele, piazza Duomo, Palazzo Betti in via Patini (interiors) and the council offices in via Avezzano. This marks the start of a race against time that will bring the community together to prevent the closure of the school, effectively a death knell for Rupe.
After 40 years of teaching primary school in the urban jungle of Rome, Michele Cortese suddenly sees the opportunity for a new life when he manages to get himself assigned to the Istituto Cesidio Gentile (known as Jurico) in the heart of the National Park of Abruzzo: a school with a single class of children aged from 7 to 10. Thanks to the help of the deputy head teacher Agnese and the children, he is able to overcome his city habits and become one of them. Just when everything seems to be going perfectly, they hear that the school is slated for closure because of a lack of pupils. This sparks a race against time to prevent it from happening.
